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Tony Colonel. 00:00:01
All right. Welcome to the February meeting of the Watkinsville City Council. We do have a quorum here tonight. All council is 00:00:05
present with newly minted Lieutenant Colonel Brett Thomas. Congratulations, Lieutenant Colonel from Kuwait, joining us via phone 00:00:11
here at the city clerk's microphone. So, Brett, welcome. Thank you as always for joining us in the dark of the night in Kuwait. 00:00:17
We're glad you're with us. 00:00:23
And we have a full group here tonight with us. With that, we'll do the pledge. Let's all stand. 00:00:29
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. 00:00:36
And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 00:00:41
All right, I'm going to offer up the usual disclaimer. Everyone who's here, you're on camera. It's right there. We are 00:00:55
broadcasting this simultaneously and online. 00:00:59
Through the Suite 1 webcasting portal, those who aren't with us tonight can always watch online. The meeting packet was posted on 00:01:04
Friday, so any member of the public has an opportunity to review that and provide questions to us in advance the materials. 00:01:11
The time that you have to comment will be provided to you. We'd ask that you provide your comments to the council, not to the 00:01:51
audience. 00:01:54
Or to the camera. So with that, we'll move on to approval of the Minutes Council. You've had those. Unless there's any 00:01:57
corrections, I'll look for a motion to approve. 00:02:01
I'll make a motion to approve. I. Second. We have a motion. We have a second. Welcome back, Miss Tucker. We missed you last month, 00:02:06
so we got our motion in our second back. You know, it was a little bit weird without you here. We had to had some people step up 00:02:12
on that. We have a motion to 2nd. Any comments on the minutes hearing? None. All in favor, Say aye. 00:02:18
I'm abstaining, actually. OK, I wasn't here. All right, so we have that 40 with Mayor Pro Tem Tucker abstaining from the vote. 00:02:25
Approval of the agenda. 00:02:37
Council, you have the agenda. Do we have any changes to the agenda? 00:02:40
Hear none. I'll entertain a motion to approve that. 00:02:44
Make a motion to approve. All right. Second, we have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion of the agenda hearing? None. All 00:02:48
in favor? Say aye. 00:02:52
None opposed. Motion carries 50. We will move on to administration. 00:02:58
Manager Dickerson, I'll let you run through that please. OK. Everybody should have received the balance sheet and the revenue and 00:03:04
expenditure. 00:03:08
Reports we are tracking at 63% of revenues which you know again revenues come at different times. I don't know how much to take a 00:03:12
note of that, but we are our expenses are at 57%, we should be at 58. So that's good news. 00:03:19
On the SPLOST reports your Splash One, just remember reminder that Splashed One and Splice 2 are funding the majority. That money 00:03:27
is being funded is funding the sewer line, a construction. There's some money in there for the police office build out and a 00:03:34
little bit of money left for the work that has to be done around here with the landscaping and whatnot around City Hall. 00:03:42
And then splice. 00:03:52
And we're going to, we'll dive into this a little bit more later because we've got, we're going to talk about reprogram some of 00:03:54
these funds. But right now you've encumbered some monies for some capital items both in public facilities and in. 00:03:59
The multipurpose government facilities, equipment that be for public works and then you've got the money set aside for the park 00:04:06
renovation that we've we've talked about with Harris Hills Park. That money's been encumbered. 00:04:11
Do you want to point out that we did hit six figures in December on? 00:04:18
On our sales tax. 00:04:22
Portion another reminder because we're going to be talking about Tea Sloss tonight, but Spice 3 is still at 8.63%, but our tea 00:04:24
spots will be at 7.77%. 00:04:28
From. 00:04:34
And then lastly, but not least the AARP report, we have a little bit more than 775,000 for you that to spend. 00:04:36
There is a balance of 825 because some of that money has been encumbered to cover some. 00:04:44
Public safety premium that we're paying to entice officers that we have. 00:04:49
Think y'all agreed to 10,000 / 3 year period that they get. We're using that. 00:04:53
I do have a few other, if there are any questions about any of the financials, I'll move to a couple other items I put on here 00:04:58
today. Anything on financials? 00:05:01
I did want to report suite one last meeting. We had 60 views on the portal on the day of the meeting. 12 were actually on the 00:05:06
video. One of those of course is our staff member, so 11. 00:05:12
But I thought, Y'all might like to see how many people are. What's the difference in the views in the in watching the video 00:05:19
sharing, Can you? Well, so the portal means they're going in, they're actually looking at the agenda, the packet materials, the 00:05:23
video means that they're actually linking into the video while it's live, OK? 00:05:27
OK. 00:05:33
I'll try to give that to you all every other month or something, just give you an update. 00:05:34
And because we're going to start the budget process next month, I want to go ahead and actually technically we began it this month 00:05:38
with a annual council retreat, but I want to go ahead and give everybody heads up on the schedule. I gave everyone at the behind 00:05:44
the Dyess a schedule, but you also we can give you more detail, but this is basically what you need to know for your meetings. 00:05:50
Part of those meetings I'll send out like just like I do with this one, the agenda, any items that need to be shared ahead of time 00:05:56
and there are some extra copies on the table there for anybody that's joining us tonight. 00:06:01
Any. 00:06:07
Nothing. 00:06:08
I don't know if this is a place to ask this, but would there be any way? I'm guessing that the called meeting, the required public 00:06:14
hearing meeting, is not very long on May 17th, so we have to have a quorum at that meeting so that the main goal is that we have a 00:06:20
quorum, so we have to have at least three of Y'all plus the mayor. Could it be at 1:00 instead of 12:30 just because we already 00:06:26
have? 00:06:31
DDA meeting at 1:30. I think the intent of dinner at 12:30 was so if the public could join us during the lunch hour, that was the 00:06:38
intent. And again, we just have to have three of y'all plus the mayor to be a forum, correct Jeff? 00:06:43
Thanks. 00:06:49
We're trying to spread it out so people have. 00:06:51
OK. 00:06:56
On economic development, we have are continuing to receive business licenses. The deadline is March 15th. 00:06:58
So we have additional ones coming in. Our alcohol license payments have come up. We have a couple of renewals that have come in. 00:07:05
We are getting thankfully from Airbnb, we're getting our hotel motel now looks like. So that's good. Those transition has 00:07:11
happened. I believe we did get a payment this month too. So I think we're already at 6700. 00:07:17
Which is about what I budgeted for the year, so. 00:07:24
And then on building Permits 3, we did get building plans for water swap did come in, but we're working through those comments 00:07:28
with. 00:07:32
It all sort of washes out. We had that same thing happened this past year. We thought some remember apart from moving you know 00:08:10
it's a it's a hit or miss. We have to guesstimate sometimes what's going to happen and. 00:08:15
We don't have control over some things like the market or pricing, you know prices of supplies. So thank you. 00:08:20
Anything. 00:08:26
All right, I'll pass it off to. 00:08:28
Good evening, Mayor and Council. Always a pleasure to be here before you. 00:08:32
That's a bit of a report last week for the council package. Is there any questions over in the material I provided? 00:08:35
Hearing none and seeing none. 00:08:43
We've had a busy month. 00:08:45
I'm very happy to, happy to say it's good to see see that, say that we're busy, but it's also bad to say we're busy because when 00:08:46
we're busy like we have been, it's because we've been, you know, putting bad guys in jail and and having crime occur in our our 00:08:51
jurisdiction. 00:08:55
So in January, we had an uncovered reverse sting we dubbed Operation House Hunter. 00:09:00
We had a person that was portraying themselves as. 00:09:06
Rental agent that was going to rent a property to a suspected unsuspecting victim for an amount of money and. 00:09:10
She ultimately ended up contacting the actual owners of the property and made them aware and they made in turn made us aware and 00:09:18
we set up the. 00:09:22
And uh. 00:09:27
Put the young lady in jail for actually impersonating an officer. She represented herself as a corrections officer. 00:09:29
I'm sorry, a probation officer and. 00:09:36
Uh. 00:09:41
Committed Theft by deception about for taking the $1200 for the rental agreement. 00:09:41
And she showed up driving on a suspended license, so we locked her up for that. 00:09:47
But All in all, good, good rest. We were able to recognize all the officers that participated in that operation with a letter of 00:09:53
appreciation for their involvement in their planning. 00:09:58
Efforts that they were participating in it. 00:10:04
Really good operation. All right Chief our officers don't go undercover too often but didn't we have somebody undercover in the 00:10:07
operation? We did. We did so the victim had a has an elderly father that was that was kind of ill and so. 00:10:14
One of our officers actually matched the demographic for him and so we put him in, in the role with the victim and sent that 00:10:21
officer in undercover as as a as a, you know, safety. 00:10:27
For our victim and as well as an observer for the transaction. So yeah, Officer Sergeant Wade fulfilled that role and he did a 00:10:33
great job. 00:10:38
February 10th Watkinsville Police Department hosted. 00:10:45
Piedmont Area Traffic Enforcement Network or for a regional meeting and. 00:10:50
We had 40 troopers, Rangers, deputies, police officers and three canines here in town. They went through a training session here 00:10:54
in the council chambers for surviving armed encounters. 00:10:59
And then they set up a Traffic Safety checkpoint on 15 where they ran for several hours. They were able to make 4D UIRS for 00:11:04
narcotics rest one traffic related arrest which is. 00:11:10
Think a driver without a license and 30 citations, 22 warnings for seatbelts, child restraints, violations. Big shout out to all 00:11:17
these all these officers that came from all these surrounding jurisdictions and participated in that effort. And thank you to 00:11:22
Chris Greer. We have engaged him to take some photographs of the agency and documents and things for us over the next, you know, 00:11:27
coming weeks. 00:11:32
And he was very gracious to come out to the roadblock and. 00:11:37
Take some photographs, both aerial and on the ground, and then provide us to provide those to us so that we get a, you know, 00:11:44
portray them on our Facebook page. 00:11:47
Yeah, Chris geared as you. 00:11:51
Does some really great work? 00:11:54
Additionally, we went to Kids Nest here off of Norton and participated in high five day with the children at at the Kids. 00:11:56
And yesterday we participant went to St. Gabriel's assisted living facility and delivered. 00:12:07
Valentine's Day cards and Valentine's Day candy to all the residents there, and we had a wonderful time doing that. It was a very, 00:12:15
very much a treat, as much of a treat for us as it was for the residents who were receiving the gifts and the candy. 00:12:21
And one last thing, one thing and how are you funding that just? 00:12:28
Share about your oh and those proceeds, all that. 00:12:33
All the money that has been spent for those efforts, for the candy and the cards and all that stuff is coming from the badges and 00:12:39
Benevolence Foundation. That's the foundation for long qualified law enforcement foundation for walking to the Police Department. 00:12:45
And I would like to introduce to you a new hire that we were able to make today for court services. 00:12:54
Lauren Hughes. 00:13:04
Lauren is a post certified officer. She formerly served in the Cab County Police Department. She is going to fulfill a contract 00:13:07
labor position that you approved in last budget cycle. 00:13:12
We are finally getting. Getting. 00:13:18
Her identified as the candidate to fill that position and we're going to put her to work very, very. 00:13:21
Quickly and. 00:13:28
Uh. 00:13:30
Keep her very busy for the next few months. 00:13:32
Now you have a 5 minute speed repair. 00:13:37
Lauren Hughes should be working for. 00:13:42
The. 00:13:46
All right. 00:13:47
Thank you. 00:13:48
One, if you got a minute, we'd love for you just to tell us a little bit about your background and what made you interested in 00:13:52
this position. 00:13:54
Experience that I've obtained, So I'm really looking forward to applying those things, fulfilling this position and serving the 00:14:30
citizens of Watkinsville. 00:14:34
Welcome. 00:14:38
Any other questions? 00:14:44
Chief the badges and Benevolence Foundation. Has it been. If we heard back from the state yet on whether we're eligible to be a 00:14:47
part of the state tax credit Attorney says you can submit paperwork to to the. 00:14:53
Department of Revenue for the commissioner to review and approve I have. I asked for an update on the application status with the 00:14:59
Department of Revenue. I haven't got a response yet, but we're waiting on it. They. 00:15:05
Updating the list as you know names become available for the list. 00:15:11
And Tuesday morning, they still had $72 million allocated for. 00:15:20
That program so so for those of you who aren't aware, you will be able. 00:15:26
The state passed the law last year or maybe two years ago. Where qualified agencies you can donate a. 00:15:31
I don't know if there's a limit, chief, but you can you, instead of paying state taxes, you can actually contribute. 00:15:39
A certain amount of your state tax amount to a qualified Police Department foundation. 00:15:45
And the chief has been working to make sure Watkinsville is eligible for that, so that can be as an individual or for your 00:15:52
business. 00:15:55
So instead of writing a check to the state of Georgia, you can write a check to the Walk into the Badges and Benevolence 00:15:58
Foundation and use that as a credit against your state taxes. So, but for our visit folks who are watching online. 00:16:04
And for Y'all to spread the word to business owners and residents that you know, wouldn't it be nice to send part of your state 00:16:11
tax burden back here to the Watkinsville Police Department to help help support his officers with what they're doing and all that 00:16:16
they're doing? 00:16:21
And might might help us in some other ways. So is that accurate, Chief? 00:16:27
If I may, it's $5000 per individual and $10,000 for any corporation or a joint couple. 00:16:31
And they can make the application they have to have pre authorization from the Department of Revenue Commission. 00:16:40
Because they're keeping track of how much money is getting allocated to each foundation, and once you get the approval back, you 00:16:44
make the make the contribution, then you can take it, take that off on. 00:16:49
The taxes for your next year, it is, like I said, $5000 or whatever your tax bracket is. Whatever. 00:16:55
But that the common use place. These are commonly uses for private schools but there is a limited amount of pool. The state has a 00:17:39
cap on it so so we want you know we want. 00:17:44
We'd ideally we would go ahead and get those in pretty early. So Chief is once we're certified or you know let's be sure we just 00:17:51
get that information out pretty aggressively. 00:17:55
OK. And then let's also share and let's make a note to let the Chamber of Commerce know at the right time that we're eligible for 00:18:00
that. And you know, we just want. 00:18:04
Be sure we do our part to get those dollars back here to walk and so and I have one additional thing that I need to add from 00:18:07
breaking news. 00:18:11
The LPRS, just moments before we came to the council and engaged in the meeting, the LPR hit on a war. 00:18:16
Officers staged up on the vehicle because they went out of jittery toes because they had to get their. 00:18:25
Once the driver came back out, they made contact with the driver and it was a valid hit and they have arrested him for multiple 00:18:30
warrants from surrounding counties. 00:18:33
Very good. So Chief, remind everybody how fast those, when that camera sees something that the notification gets to your officers 00:18:38
if they've got, if they've got their camera up, if they got their computer up in the car. 00:18:44
And they're sitting in a location where they could see the cars passing them when that camera hits that cars in front. 00:18:50
Like, quite literally. 00:18:56
There you go. Thank you. Thank you. 00:19:00
All right, consent agenda. We don't have 1:00 tonight. We do have a public hearing. I'm going to let Attorney Reitman explain the 00:19:06
procedures related to that, but that is for our friends who are here from the luxury inn tonight as it relates to an annexation. 00:19:13
So Mr. Reitman, if you could walk us through public hearing procedures. 00:19:21
And then we will let Mrs. Dickerson and yourself walk us through the report on the request. 00:19:25
And then at that point, Mr. Miss Abatin, Mr. Mr. or Mrs. Vodka, whoever wants to speak would then come forward. OK. So Joey, you 00:19:31
take the lead. Yes, Sir. I'm glad to pursue to the city code. There are specific rules. 4 minutes per person needs to be relevant 00:19:38
to the topic. The agenda item at hand, Please do come forward and speak from the podium when you're called upon. And obviously we 00:19:45
do not have debate, argument, personal tax or irrelevant discussion. And at this time I opened the zoning public hearing for item 00:19:51
5. 00:19:58
6331 Macon Highway, which is the luxury Inn Motel, Mr. Mrs. Bhakta, it is a corridor commercial zoning and annexation request. 00:20:05
We'll start with the zoning public hearing. We've referenced corridor commercial because that's most similar to the current 00:20:13
county. I believe it's probably AC 3 zoning designation. So if it's going to come in, we're coming in as similar as possible. So 00:20:21
we're in a zoning public, public hearing before we actually open up the floor to the citizens, to the applicant. 00:20:30
Did either you, Sharon or Mark have any additional input or did you want me to give some background? 00:20:38
Yeah, and basically, Long story short is when the city limits were established many years ago just happened to bisect the subject 00:20:44
parcel. Maybe less than half of it is in, it looks like. 00:20:51
A little more, it's about 60% is in, but about 40% is outside of the current city limits and I consider this be somewhat of a 00:20:57
housekeeping cleanup, but it is important for tax revenue purposes to ensure that all of its appropriately reported as a city 00:21:05
business for ad valorem and sales tax etcetera purposes. This will clarify that and avoid confusion and again it's primarily 00:21:14
housekeeping will come in with the zoning as close as we have as to what the county has. 00:21:22
Will first have a zoning hearing about what I just said, coming in from county commercial to city corridor commercial. After we 00:21:30
have the zoning hearing, then we'll move on the annexation. We'll talk about that in a moment. 00:21:35
Did I leave anything out, Sharon Mark that you'd like to? 00:21:41
All right, now it is time for the applicant. Do you have anything you wish to say regarding this request? And if you do, feel free 00:21:45
to use a podium. You don't have to talk if you don't feel the need to. 00:21:50
All right, Mayor and council, again, this is straightforward. It's mostly housekeeping. Do as anybody behind the dice have any 00:21:56
questions about the process or the request. 00:22:00
OK, is there anyone else here from the public? Mr. Chairman, anybody else who wishes to be heard? This will go from being a county 00:22:06
partial parcel to an entirely city parcel. 00:22:12
No objection I presume from the county and we gave our due notice as we do each time there's an annexation, 1 less one that you 00:22:18
all need to worry about in the county, will it be in the city? 00:22:23
Hearing is seeing no comments for against I close the zoning public hearing. We go immediately into the annexation public hearing 00:22:29
and again, it will become a city property, a municipal property if the city in its discretion, chooses to bring it in as such. 00:22:37
I don't know there's really any new information to add. Do you all have any questions or comments about this? 00:22:45
All right, very good. Mr. Chairman. Anything. 00:22:52
I don't see anybody else in the room. Miss Julie, did you get any comments online? 00:22:56
No emails, nothing. All right, very good. This time I close the annexation public hearing pursuant to Georgia law. The next step 00:23:01
is an annexation vote. And Please note that if it is annexed in at the city's discretion, certain notifications will happen. We'll 00:23:08
advise Department of Community Affairs, the mapping folks they will get. 00:23:15
I guess it's not APDF. What's the actual proper verbiage? 00:23:23
Shape file. 00:23:27
We will have our map updated to show that and they will update it for purposes of the the census and so forth. At this point, 00:23:30
Mayor and Council is ripe for a vote. The first vote, if you deem appropriate, would be to vote to approve the Annexation 00:23:40
Ordinance regarding 6331 Macon Highway, the part of tax parcel W 12003 that currently lies outside of Watkinsville. 00:23:50
And so I may once say, so move. I'm sorry, you were going to say, Sir, do we have a motion? Do we have a motion to annex the 00:24:01
parcel just described? 00:24:06
Do we have a second? 00:24:12
Any discussion? 00:24:14
All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? 00:24:16
Motion carries 5 O and then on the zoning do we have a motion to make the amendment of the just described parcel added to the 00:24:20
zoning as. 00:24:25
Commercial. 00:24:31
So moved. Do we have a second? Here's your chance for discussion. 00:24:32
Hearing none. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? 00:24:38
Motion carries 5 O You are now part of Watkinsville. 00:24:42
You were before, but I'll love you now we got. 00:24:46
OK, y'all do not have to hang around if you don't want to, but you're welcome to stay if if you want. We do not have any 00:24:49
appearances tonight. We do not have any old business under new business we have. 00:24:55
A resolution when we were at the GMA luncheon earlier. They are promoting. 00:25:02
An effort to practice greater civility at city meetings. Thankfully, this is already. 00:25:10
Largely covered in our code of ethics that we approved previously, but we thought we would want to be an example for other cities 00:25:16
in the state and go ahead and embrace the resolution that GMA has provided for us. So I would encourage us to do that. There's a 00:25:23
little bit of background on the screen about this. 00:25:29
We typically behave this way already, and I'm really proud of the way that we interact here in Watkinsville, but I I think it 00:25:37
would be good for us to adopt this resolution as a show of support for the broader initiative in the state and be a community that 00:25:42
embraces these principles. 00:25:47
So this was in your packet and there's some background on the screen. 00:25:52
Happy to have some discussion about the. 00:25:57
Civility. 00:26:01
Civility resolution. Joe, do you have anything you want to add to that? 00:26:03
Other than the fact that we did simplify this down a little bit, it was very good form from GMA but a little verbose, and as 00:26:06
everything else that we put in front of you, we try to distill it down to the basic elements for brevity and ease of application 00:26:12
and compliance. 00:26:17
From. 00:26:23
Jeff, I know you were there too when they talked about this. Did you have any any other thoughts? 00:26:28
No. 00:26:32
All. 00:26:35
All right. Well, if you guys are comfortable, I'll entertain. 00:26:37
I make a motion that we accept the resolution. 00:26:40
Umm to practice and promote civility? 00:26:44
That say that Right Civility pledge. Do we have a second? 00:26:48
All right. Any discussion? 00:26:53
The most civil way possible. All in favor? Say aye. 00:26:57
All right. Sharon, could motion carries 5 O Sharon, would you be sure to convey to GMA that we have adopted this? I'm sure they're 00:27:00
wanting to. 00:27:04
How many cities are a part of that? 00:27:09
So if you could let the right people know, that would be great. 00:27:12
Item 7 and this ties back. 00:27:16
To our planning retreat that we held last week to some degree is our 2023 Comprehensive Plan Short Term. 00:27:19
Work plan for 2023 to 2027, so manager Dickerson, I'm going to let you offer a report on that. 00:27:27
Sure. Thank you, Mayor. 00:27:33
So these are the activities that we have identified for the next five years that you all will be focusing on, obviously not all at 00:27:35
the same time, but and we had you prioritize some of those, There are some additional objectives in your strategic plan that don't 00:27:41
fall into this plan, but these are the Top 14. 00:27:47
These, if approved tonight, will be sent to the county to be included in the Comprehensive update, Comprehensive Plan update. 00:27:53
Can you go back one more? I just wanna misspell something. No, I'm just. 00:28:00
You know me, but I mean. 00:28:05
And basically you're held to this, but you're not. I mean it basically you're the goal is for cities and counties to continue to 00:28:10
plan, thoughtfully plan. 00:28:14
Make measured decisions about how to grow your community. And so that's the the point of this and that's part why it's part of the 00:28:22
comprehensive plan. So every five years as an update. 00:28:26
So this is your short term work program. 00:28:30
And the responsible parties all need to. 00:28:33
Members of elected officials, right. So if something is actually, again, the work, it will be largely done by you or by the 00:28:36
Downtown Development Authority. We don't need to have that on here. 00:28:40
Council, I think this is a result. This is a result of the work we did Thursday and some of our prioritization exercise. Do y'all 00:29:26
have any? 00:29:28
Anything you want to share or feedback on? 00:29:32
So this is not, this is not in order of importance. No, no. OK. 00:29:39
Now you you all do that in your strategic, but this is just a list of activities that you're committing to try to work on. And you 00:29:46
know, you know how this works. You could be going down the road, you know one specific item, something could happen. You you've 00:29:50
got to stop it. You you know, that's fine. It's just they want you to go through the effort of trying to plan and be thoughtful 00:29:55
about the growth of your community. 00:30:00
And then you report like we just submit, we'll be submitting the work plan that was completed and the status of those items. I 00:30:08
didn't bring, I didn't bring this up, you all received that will be submitting that along with this as part of the is what did you 00:30:13
accomplish, what do you want to accomplish kind of thing. 00:30:18
All right. Do we have a motion to adopt the short term work plan? 00:30:26
I make a motion to adopt the short term work plan. 00:30:31
Do we have a second? 00:30:36
Any further discussion? 00:30:38
All right, All in favor. Say aye. 00:30:41
Any opposed? 00:30:44
Motion carries 5. 00:30:46
We will move on to fiscal year 23 budget amendments. Manager Dickerson. I think you've got a report for us on that. 00:30:48
So we don't normally do this, but but we do have some activities, some opportunities that are approached in front of us that we 00:30:57
want to ask you to. 00:31:01
To pursue and we're going to ask that you take the. 00:31:06
The extra revenues that we've received in the lost during the first six months of the year, you can see that I projected 426,000, 00:31:12
we've actually received 508,000 which is a little more than 80, two $82,000 and we would like to ask you to go ahead and direct 00:31:19
those funds to some projects and opportunities one and I'd lay these out in your packet. 00:31:26
But they're up on the screen as well. So with the DDA, now that we have a DVA director, there's some activities that we would like 00:31:33
her to. 00:31:37
Pursue and one in particular, it's very important was discussed today during the DVA board meeting was actually having a strategic 00:31:41
plan, a short term plan. 00:31:45
Eventually will there'll be a master plan. We saw that in the short term work program, but that's not something we're going to do 00:31:50
right now. We need to get our feet underneath us and. 00:31:54
And figure out sort of the next few steps to grow. And so there's a there's a company that we would like to engage. 00:31:57
Opportunity for, you know, to meet each other and then it depending on what you decide to do with historic preservation, there'll 00:32:34
be some educational information that will need to go out and that would fall at this point, the majority that probably fall under 00:32:39
DDA. And then the Main Street program, there is some training we would like to pursue that There's a lot of opportunities that 00:32:43
come and resources that come available through Main Street 101. 00:32:48
So to drill down and all that, we're looking at about 10,000 for. 00:32:53
And then on the general government side, we have some legal and professional expenses, some to deal with some code enforcement 00:32:57
cases that were unexpected and were caught somewhat costly. And then we are currently, we have an RFP out right now for some 00:33:02
financial software. We're currently handling all of our finances. 00:33:08
For those purposes and I did, I did just to show you your sheet in your packet to show you the. So we're we're not asking for any 00:33:52
money out of fund balance. The money would just be redirected you know from the revenues that we've already received. 00:33:58
And then into tourism and general government. 00:34:05
And Sheridan, I talked about this, y'all a lot of times we have some small, small numbers, small things we do at the end of the 00:34:09
year. But I just thought given the increase in revenues and the size of some of these would be healthier for us to go ahead and do 00:34:13
a mid year, mid year budget adjustment rather than pushing these sort of things to the end of the year and and all of them and it 00:34:18
looking like. 00:34:22
A bigger cleanup than what it really was because they're planning on how and how to use these funds as it stands, so. 00:34:28
So I have a question, this is just minor. So as we are now getting some Airbnb taxes. 00:34:34
We'll document that and and yeah. 00:35:19
Sorry, another question. 00:35:27
Is there with that 15,000 approximate? 00:35:30
Guesstimate of the software, the the light, is there some expense that will go away that we have right now with QuickBooks? Yeah, 00:35:34
so I think QuickBooks is around 6000. 00:35:39
A year, but this the the software we're looking at will also add HR capabilities, payroll which we don't have right now. We're 00:35:45
doing all by hand. I mean it should streamline a lot of the stuff. So it's yeah it's going to be there. There's some additional 00:35:50
costs we're taking on that we don't currently have, but it should make us more. Again we're trying to professionalize the the 00:35:55
departments and and you know make it so that it's not so labor intensive and we can spend time doing other things and not you 00:36:00
know. 00:36:05
Doing payroll, no, that makes a lot of sense. Well, I just was wanting to make sure. So it's not really a $15,000 a year increase, 00:36:10
it's more like a seven or seven and that's where I mean that's just an estimate because we haven't received, we don't receive the, 00:36:15
we don't open those proposals, price proposals until March, I think 6 at the Monday, I think it's March 6th or third Monday. Thank 00:36:20
you. 00:36:25
OK. 00:36:33
Any other questions on the budget amendments? 00:36:35
Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to. 00:36:39
Approve the proposed budget amendments. 00:36:42
I make a motion to approve the proposed budget amendments. Do we have a second? 00:36:46
We have a motion. We have a second. Any questions? Discuss. 00:36:52
All right. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? 00:36:55
Sounds like it passed 5 O. 00:37:01
Hang in there with us, Lieutenant Colonel. 00:37:04
You you're still with us. All right, good. 00:37:08
Let me tell you what, when we get to the journey we're going to let, we're going to let the Lieutenant Colonel make a motion to 00:37:11
adjourn tonight. How about that? 00:37:14
OK, we'll leave. We'll let you have that, Christine, but we'll we'll, we'll do that. 00:37:19
OK. 00:37:23
All right. Thank you, Colonel Thomas. All right. The report for Parks, Green Space and Environmental Committee, Playground 00:37:26
Subcommittee. Excuse me, Mayor Pro Tem, give us an update on what you got. OK. Excellent. So I. 00:37:33
There was an engineering report done on. Maybe not. Was it an engineering report? Anyway, contractors came out and looked at the 00:37:41
old playground and we were hoping that we could save. 00:37:47
A bit of it, and repurpose it to be more of kind of like a canopy walk type of thing. 00:37:54
Unfortunately, it is not particularly salvageable and even if we spent, the amount of money was over $50,000 to salvage just the 00:38:01
parts of it we were going to keep and to keep them up to code and to make them safe. It was just going to be a Band-Aid and it 00:38:09
wouldn't last that long anyway. So meeting with the subcommittee, that did not seem to be a good use of city funds and so. 00:38:18
All of it is going to be demolished. However, what we are going to be doing instead is this is a project that's going to take a 00:38:27
number of years, but we are starting. We have an RFP going out asking for some art that ideally will be repurposing. 00:38:36
Some of the parts of the old playground in the art and it will be lining the ADA accessible sidewalk from the bottom of Paris 00:38:46
Shoals all the way up to the new playground. And again, this is going to take some time with different artists over time, but all 00:38:51
of the art also. 00:38:57
Is art that children could touch or interact with in some way. It's not going to be something that parents are going to keep their 00:39:02
children off of. 00:39:06
And it will all also have a focus on the natural flora and fauna that would be found in Harrah's park, with the hope of also 00:39:10
having informational signage that would be an educational component to help people learn more about the different flora and fauna 00:39:19
aspects that we have here in Harris Shoals Park. So we are partnering with Ocalaf on this and. 00:39:27
The RFP should be going out hopefully, if not by the end of this week then next week. We're still making a few little tweaks. 00:39:36
Proposals end by the end of April so that we we have. 00:39:42
17-5 set aside for this budget cycle for this project, which we will pick at least two artists. And then I'm hoping we'll have 00:39:50
just an influx of wonderful ideas and artists wanting to participate and so we can do some more budget asks for this coming fiscal 00:39:57
year. So that is the hope. Any questions? 00:40:03
Or thoughts on this from anybody? 00:40:11
How do artists get a copy of the RFP? So that is a great question once we have it. And Wendy Cooper, the director of Oak Half, has 00:40:13
been the one who's been, you know, crafting it. She has much more experience and. 00:40:19
RFP's for artists than I do. We should be able to put a copy somewhere. 00:40:26
Online, it'll be online, will also be hopefully, maybe have even a link on our social media channels for people to be able to 00:40:33
share it. OCAF will also be sending it out. Lawrence Duke is one of the committee members. He has a lot of connections in the 00:40:39
artist community. So he also will be putting it out. But anybody, I mean, once it's up and going, it just needs to be shared. And 00:40:45
I'm sorry, I don't actually have a. 00:40:51
100% completed copy this evening we said we're making a few little last weeks, so. 00:40:58
Thank you for your work on that. That's the. 00:41:06
A lot of good memories on that playground, but I think we'll create a lot of great new memories on this new walking quarter and 00:41:09
with the picnic facilities and other things. 00:41:13
So what we're going to do with that space? So the playground of possibilities is amazing. It's getting so much use. We have yet to 00:41:17
experience it really in the. 00:41:22
Well, we started to experience it in the heat of the summer, but we're about to be coming upon that again, and so we thought it 00:41:27
would be nice to have a more shaded picnic area. So where that is being removed now, we'll have some picnic tables and such there 00:41:32
for people to have. 00:41:38
Little respite from the sun. 00:41:44
All right. Thank you, Councilwoman Tucker, for all your work on that. 00:41:47
In order to bump up the others to the maximum. So let me remind you guys that the the referendum. 00:42:26
So the antenna is simply just to shift to reprogram those funds so you get more out of splash. You can't use T spots monies on rec 00:43:10
and parks or unless there's a road going through there I guess. But or public public safety technically Chief will tell you can 00:43:15
use on police cars, but I don't that's not what we're going to do with it and you can't use on government facilities you know 00:43:20
either. So the intent is to try to maximize what we can out of these three buckets that we have under SPLOST and then under T 00:43:26
SPLOST. 00:43:31
To move those whatever projects at 380,000 basically move those those expenses to TS Blossom collected there. 00:43:37
I'll walk you through sort of a breakdown. So this right now and I don't have the, I didn't put the this y'all seen the sheet, 00:43:44
it's pretty pretty. 00:43:48
It's pretty involved. So I didn't put the whole sheet up there, but you will see the appropriate amount for that extra that jaws 00:43:53
of life was 30 about 35,000 and then the money we've appropriated for police vehicles and public safety is about 92 three and 00:43:58
that's that's money that doesn't have to come out of our capital but will come out of this instead. So we don't have to bring take 00:44:03
it out of the general fund capital. 00:44:08
So in this case, we're recommending that we move the police equipment up by 90,000, which would make it 340, which then makes us 00:44:13
at the 5:40. 00:44:17
And. 00:44:22
This is a little bit more involved. This one involves Councilwoman Tucker's and and Councilwoman Massey's committee on the Park. 00:44:24
We preserve the 100,000 out there. We've there is some monies left because we've, you know, freed up some money in there, but 00:44:31
there will be some money left to do some, perhaps some of the additional art walk items that you want to do. We're removing the 00:44:38
informational signs because we have that money in government facilities and signage. We don't need it here, so we'll reduce that. 00:44:45
We're bumping the Reimagination Rocket Field up 300,000 to 300,000 so that we can set aside the money needed for those 00:44:53
improvements. 00:44:57
So that's the drill down sort of detail. 00:45:04
These are the details on Rocket. 00:45:07
As they stand right now, of course those numbers could change and stuff, but right now that's where we're at. 00:45:12
Some of those are estimates, some of our actual numbers that we believe will happen. 00:45:17
And then on roads and streets, as I said we'll we will reduce that and I should update ignore that where it says the Max I updated 00:45:23
in your packet but not on my slide where it says to decrease to the Max, just ignore that. Sorry about that. 00:45:29
Your packet is correct, but basically decrease that amount by 380,000. So we're going from 2/7 to 2/3 on that one. 00:45:37
And as you see we've, you know you have general buckets or items projects within Rd. streets and bridges. 00:45:44
A lot of those matches and things, but it I don't think there's going to be a serious, you know, because you're going to be able 00:45:52
to shift those if needed to tease Lost. 00:45:55
Sharon, since our entrance signs came in significantly less than that. 00:46:28
You know, are we going to do anticipate us moving forward on some more of our downtown branding stuff? Yeah, so as part of that, 00:46:33
absolutely. Yeah, All of our signage, our park signage, our Watkins, you know, all the park signage. 00:46:39
Include Rocket Field, whatever we end up doing there, the downtown wayfinding signs, we talked about that today. I haven't priced 00:46:46
any of that yet. 00:46:48
Umm, any other signs in the community? Yeah, well, it'll come out of this amount. Like even when we have I think the green space 00:46:52
at Trove, I think it'd be really nice to designate that that's part of the Watkinsville Green space program. You know some of 00:46:56
those spaces that so people know they're. 00:47:01
You know that we have 17 acres or something of public, public spaces out there. So yeah, the signage and and again that's, you 00:47:06
know, we have, I don't know that you know what. 00:47:10
What we'll do with the public works facility these were, I dig in those items in white were. 00:47:16
Ideas, place placeholders essentially. So those monies are somewhat fluid. As we come up with ideas or projects that we move 00:47:21
forward, we'll bring them back to you to get some definition on that. And then that's just a. 00:47:27
Again, ignore the roads and streets. Horses decreased to Max. I got your packet right just to get on slide right. 00:47:36
Any questions? 00:47:42
Hearing none do we have a motion to approve the. 00:47:49
The designation of Swiss 3. 00:47:52
I make a motion to approve the designation of spots three funds. 00:47:56
All. 00:48:01
And I second. 00:48:03
All right, we have a motion and we have a second. Any discussion? 00:48:05
Hearing none all in favor of approving the designation of SPLOST 3 funds, say aye aye. 00:48:09
Any opposed? 00:48:16
Motion carries 5 O. All right. Moving on to T spots. I'm assuming that's the other side of this Sharon, so. 00:48:18
Walk us through that. 00:48:25
We don't have a whole bunch of defined projects in this right now. Mainly because we haven't started collecting and I think 00:48:27
there's a little bit of time y'all are trying to sort of figure out. We did. I have I have sent to the city engineer a request for 00:48:32
some exhibits to we talked about it the retreat trying to. 00:48:36
The professional engineering, the the 20% match of that watch will come out of Sloss Three. I've already already earmarked that 00:49:14
for that purpose. 00:49:17
So that item is on here because that is a future project. And then you know like I said, sidewalks and trails are, it's just sort 00:49:22
of a placeholder. We are required by T Spot, by the law and T Spot to keep 30% set aside for the statewide strategic 00:49:29
transportation plan which essentially is just resurfacing, you know roads and stuff, so. 00:49:35
So we do have that down there and. 00:49:42
Set aside, I think we all talked about this at the retreat to last week was set to solve a bit of money for the Highway 53 00:49:45
expansion and if that is needed and that will have to be determined as that hopefully that progresses. 00:49:51
So OK. 00:50:00
All right. Any questions on this? 00:50:02
And the 5.5 is the Max no matter how much the revenues grow overtime, is that correct? 00:50:34
I believe so. Is that right? Can you all go above 71,000,000? If we were to collect more than 71,000,000, you can't. 00:50:41
Platform. 00:50:48
So then it'll be based on a percentage. 00:50:50
OK, great. Good to know. So then it works into a percentage I believe of what the right, right if you set the if the referendum is 00:50:55
say 2.4 million is. 00:50:59
You know, half 50% of the 5.5. 00:51:04
You should have to use it for the approval list, right? Yeah. 00:51:07
All right. 00:51:14
OK, council, can I have a motion to approve the T spot allocations? I make a motion to approve the designations. All right, Do we 00:51:15
have a second? 00:51:21
Have a motion, We have a second. Any further discussion? 00:51:30
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. 00:51:33
Any opposed? 00:51:36
Motion carries unanimously. 00:51:37
All right. Report and recommendation regarding historic preservation. Just a quick set up on this. 00:51:41
As you all will recall, we've had through the years some passionate conversations up here about historic preservation. 00:51:48
Watkinsville has. 00:51:58
Thankfully, we still have a lot of our history, our historic homes, Histor. 00:52:00
Buildings, but Oconee County does not have a surfeit of those, nor does Watkinsville, frankly, compared to some surrounding 00:52:05
communities. So. 00:52:08
The last time we had one of these painful conversations about a house getting a demolition permit. 00:52:13
Councilman Garrett and Councilman Campbell agreed to. 00:52:18
Work on this with staff and take a look at it. And so they are. They have done some homework and I want to let them talk about the 00:52:23
results of that work and where they think we need to go. 00:52:27
Yeah, The property on Barnett Shoals was kind of. 00:52:39
Kind of got the ball rolling on this idea as far as historic preservation. So you know, Chuck, Chuck and I have been kind of. 00:52:43
Educating ourselves and into what goes into it. We're still learning, and so tonight we kind of wanted to. 00:52:50
Let the public know that the historic preservation ordinance is something the council is looking into. 00:52:56
And would welcome public feedback. 00:53:02
From the other citizens of Watkinsville, some of the. 00:53:06
Kind of a high point, I guess. We're looking to identify the historic district. 00:53:12
We've spoke kind of briefly of the kind of defining an area and I'm actually meeting with Doctor Nesbitt in two weeks. 00:53:18
He worked with the city of Watkinsville. He's a professor at UGA and historic. 00:53:26
College of history, I guess. Or something. And anyway, he worked with Winterville in regards to defining their historic districts 00:53:33
and what you should include, what you should not include. So that'll help us, kind of. 00:53:39
Tighten up and come up with the correct area if we so choose to go forward with a historic preservation ordinance. 00:53:45
We looked at kind of a timeline or an age of properties and came up with 70 years old after looking at some other. 00:53:53
Cities that have enacted A historic Preservation ordinance seem to be. 00:54:02
A reasonable amount of time. 00:54:06
Umm. 00:54:09
Let's see. We would have to establish a historic preservation Commission. All the residents would have to live in. The city. 00:54:11
Council member can't be a member of the Commission, and that Commission would meet to create. 00:54:17
Squeaks this table. 00:54:26
And. 00:54:33
So that the Commission would put would help to define the district, come up with the ordinance and everything. So basically 00:54:35
tonight kind of just wanted to announce this is something that we're looking into and welcome feedback from our. 00:54:42
Residents of the city. 00:54:49
And that's anything else. 00:54:53
You know, four out of five of us live in a historic, older, historic home. So it's not like we're trying to do something that's. 00:54:57
I don't know it affects us. 00:55:07
We're taking it very serious and when I came here and all the years coming through town, we haven't marked the historic district 00:55:10
and I thought it was something that was already in place and then we realized it wasn. 00:55:16
So. 00:55:23
We welcome feedback. 00:55:26
To help to try to get this thing going. 00:55:29
Back for me. So we will. I'm going to let Joe and Christine weigh in in a second, but just a couple things. So we think it is 00:55:33
really important that our downtown. 00:55:37
Property owners or property owners who may or may not be in the district have an opportunity to comment on this. So we will have a 00:55:42
pretty robust public input process where we'll outline what some of the options are, the pros and cons, the areas that are likely 00:55:47
to be affected and give our give the public plenty of time to weigh in on this. There's a lot of different levels that we can take 00:55:53
in terms of the how the code is structured. There's also some benefits that can come back to property owners by being in a 00:55:58
historic. 00:56:04
Historic district and a part of that in terms of some, I think there's some tax freezes and other things like that that are 00:56:10
available depending on. 00:56:14
How you approach this? So there's some pros and cons. There's some level of complexity to this. So we're trying to balance the 00:56:19
needs of property owners and what their desires may be to do with their property. 00:56:24
With the broader community interest of historic preservation and keeping some of these assets that we can never get back. So I'm 00:56:31
going to let Christine go and then Joe go. 00:56:35
Yeah, I was just going to piggyback on what Chuck was saying. 00:56:40
The majority of us, the vast majority of us, live in these historic homes ourselves. And so I think there's going to be a very 00:56:44
practical approach to this. It's not going to be high level esoteric. Oh, this is great in theory, all of. 00:56:52
Would most likely experience the practical implications and so. 00:57:00
Very much want feedback from people who have insight into that so. 00:57:06
I think, I think it's something that Watkinsville needs. It's just figuring out how to do it in a way that it's not too onerous 00:57:13
on. 00:57:17
Property owners. 00:57:23
Thank you, Jeff. Thank you. To put a finer point on what you mentioned a moment ago, the transparency of this process is 00:57:24
important. Note zoning, of course, you have signs and you have newspaper ads. This goes a step further. There will be personal 00:57:32
notification to any member on the owner in the proposed historic district in advance. 00:57:39
And then post district notification. So there is substantial due process associated with this. Another aspect of this to your 00:57:47
point about it not being owners but really to be something for the benefit everyone to avoid demolition by neglect. You all 00:57:54
alluded to a moment ago about what triggered this was over that that recent 1A year ago on Barnett Shoals Rd. to avoid demolition 00:58:00
by neglect situations and encourage property owners to keep them up with as you mentioned Mr. Mayor the the programs that are 00:58:06
available. 00:58:12
Tax abatements, tax relief and things of that nature. 00:58:19
It's another tool, the toolbox for the city for planning purposes. I'll also note that these store preservation ordinances, and we 00:58:21
did a substantial update, a draft for Madison in 2016 with the help of James Reap, who is also UGA professor. Or maybe he's 00:58:28
retired now and maybe the Doctor Nesbitt is his successor. I do not know. But there are standards and guidelines that are very 00:58:34
clear available to the public. Just yesterday, kind of as a gift for my wife, I gave her the Historic Preservation manual that 00:58:41
Madison adopted back in the late 90s. 00:58:47
That's hundreds of pages of detailed information. Good go by information since you've got clear standards and you can you have 00:58:54
some, you know, templates to work from where the citizens will be fully invested and fully informed of the parameters of an 00:59:00
ordinance. So there's a lot of good work product out there, so you don't have to reinvent the wheel and the citizens can be 00:59:06
reassured that what you were doing is building upon what's been done in a lot of other communities. Very successful into the 00:59:12
benefit of the citizenry at large. Thank you. 00:59:19
Thank you, Joe. I don't think we need. 00:59:27
An action on that Do we OK? 00:59:30
I think we need to know if you intend to pursue that so that we can schedule meetings and we'll need to know about that. Does 00:59:33
anybody have any problems with moving forward with this? 00:59:38
OK. All right. You have, but we are fine moving forward with that. 00:59:44
OK, public comments. 00:59:50
Did we receive any online? Mr. Chairman Daniel have anything he wishes to share? 00:59:54
All right, public comments are now closed. Mayor's Report. I do have several things I want to cover. 00:59:59
Tonight. 01:00:06
We had the opportunity as part of our planning retreat to talk about all the accomplishments in 2022. It was quite a year for 01:00:08
Watkinsville. Very proud of what our. 01:00:12
What all of you and our staff have managed to do in 2022. Here's a couple. 01:00:18
Snapshots, There's the tactical things that you have to do. Make sure that we've got the ability for people to drive home on the 01:00:22
roads and lay a lane. 01:00:26
Hardin Hill Improve, but also big decisions like a development authority. 01:00:30
A miracle league, Miracle league facility opening. 01:00:36
Rocket Field getting off the ground, Wire Park grand opening So what a wonderful year 2022 was for Watkinsville. So so anyway, 01:00:40
just really, really proud of the the team. 01:00:46
And and the work that y'all do share and to keep everything moving. So thank you for that to you and your staff for all that work. 01:00:53
Rocket Field is, if you've driven by it is rolling. So this is a summary of what's what's happening. The most noticeable thing is 01:01:01
the new construction there in the new building. 01:01:06
The There will be some changes to the exterior on that building. It looks like it's boarding batten right now. It'll be boarding 01:01:13
batten on top. It will be brick on the bottom. 01:01:17
The but it is they are moving right along. Electric is in the buildings in the in the dry it's in and Brock tools doing a great 01:01:24
job of managing that process for us. 01:01:29
Coordinating that with the with the team from Hill Point as they move forward and move dirt. It'll imagine it'll slow down quite a 01:01:36
bit for the next few days as this rain comes through, but they're really moving quickly on that project and it's great to see it. 01:01:43
Sewer Line A is. I won't attempt to translate all that, but Sewer Line A is underway. I've checked on it twice and and talked to a 01:01:51
business owner out there. It has not been without its challenges, but I'm thankful that they're all hanging in there. 01:01:58
And it looks like they're moving, moving pretty quickly to get off of Jerry Smith Dr. which I think is going to be the part that's 01:02:07
most. 01:02:09
Most intense for our, for our. 01:02:13
Residents. Are they completely closing? Jerry Smith, Sharon, Is that what you're saying? 01:02:16
Cutting part are they not so it's try to be mayor so, so an effort to try to keep from opening, closing open and closing the the 01:02:20
contractor who's responsible for for traffic control. Work. A plan that you see on the screen there with the adjacent property 01:02:27
owners to route traffic through their parking lot for a temporary time period so that they could you know do the work hopefully in 01:02:34
the most efficient manner as they work to come under Hwy. 15. 01:02:41
OK, so anyway, they're they're they're they're moving quickly and the business owners did have some concerns about. 01:02:49
How the how the you know concrete being marked and other things and the contractor jumped right on that and I think has addressed 01:02:57
that in a very positive way. 01:03:00
Thank them for that. And John, thanks to you and your team for continuing to manage that important project. We did have a 01:03:05
three-way stop on Morrison St. We've had some public conversations about that, but that was at the request of one of the property 01:03:09
owners there. 01:03:13
And and then the chief reviewed that there used to be kind of a convex mirror there, a different kind of set up. But we thought 01:03:18
the safest thing to do there based on input from public works and Chief Brock and his team was to add a three-way stop there given 01:03:23
the improvements that are going to occur. 01:03:28
Where that will kind of feel more like a three-way stop than a curve in the road. Had a lot of people crossing over there and some 01:03:34
unsafe driving there, so kudos to our team for striping and doing that. 01:03:39
Looked like we had a celebration for Dave, Mayor Dave's love of slides with our employee LED donation. The employees raised the 01:03:44
funds for that slide and so that was celebrated today with Dave's husband Mario, who was on site. And Speaking of the playground, 01:03:51
I think you've all seen it by now, but I do have to It was after last month's meeting we were recognized as a visionary city. 01:03:58
For our partnership with ESP on that project, we were recognized in Georgia Trend. So there's a nice feature on Watkinsville and 01:04:06
Georgia Trend magazine. And then we were featured in LS is newest catalog. They're the company that did the playground equipment. 01:04:14
So that was nice to see. So Watkinsville is in there is a great example for the playground. So continue to see. 01:04:21
Lots of little legs jogging up there every day when we're at City Hall, so that's that's awesome to see how much use. 01:04:31
That that's getting we had. Sharon, is there any other slides I've got two other things I want to mention. Thanks to all of you 01:04:37
for a great planning retreat, Sharon. Thanks for your work on putting that together last Thursday. We got a lot done. 01:04:43
And that felt, I felt really great. 01:04:49
We did lose a long time citizen of Watkinsville on February 9th, and I just learned about it today. Miss Vivian Jackson passed 01:04:52
away. Miss Vivian was 88 years old and it lived on Hardin Hill for years and years and years. In fact, if you stopped to talk to 01:04:58
Miss Jackson, she'd tell you that Jackson St. was named after her family. 01:05:03
She she taught Sunday School at Bethel. 01:05:11
And claims to be the only teacher who could keep Marvin Nunley under control. 01:05:15
The last time I was at Bethel and John, I know you've been a few times too. She was still standing up on Sundays and and she 01:05:20
would, she would bring the word, she was great, so. 01:05:25
Susan and I love to talk to Miss Vivian when we were walking Susan more often than. 01:05:31
So keep her family in your prayers. She was just a wonderful lady and. 01:05:36
Lovely, lovely person with some great stories in history in Watkinsville. So her funeral. 01:05:41
Is this Friday at 11 at Bethel but? 01:05:46
I just wanted to recognize Miss Vivian Jackson. 01:05:49
Contributions to the community and her her love of the children at Bethel and others through the year. She's a she's a special 01:05:52
lady, so. 01:05:56
Keeping her family in our prayers. So that is all that I have on the mayors update. We will go to council reports at this point. 01:06:01
Councilman Garrett. 01:06:05
Councilwoman Massey have nothing all. 01:06:13
Council Colonel Thomas, anything from Kuwait? 01:06:16
Everything's quiet on the on the over the pond. 01:06:21
Couple pounds that you've crossed. All right, Councilwoman Tucker. 01:06:27
Yes, just a quick update on DDA. We've alluded to it several times, but we're continuing to move forward. Kate's doing a fantastic 01:06:32
job as the director. 01:06:36
And I'm really excited to see what this is going to do for our city. Can we share where the DDA? 01:06:42
Office is going to be, or do we want to hold on to that for a while? Yeah, we're working out the lease agreement. I'm waiting to 01:06:49
get it finished so I can send it to Joe to review. But it will be on the 2nd floor of a building Judge Shiver owns on the corner 01:06:54
of Main and School St. 01:06:59
It probably won't be one of those places. I mean, she may have people come in, but because she may or may not be there, like have 01:07:05
active office hours, but she'll have a place where she can. 01:07:09
You know, be in the space and and meet people and if needed bring people back and have meetings there. The DDA means will continue 01:07:14
to be held here at City Hall just because there's a lot of space and it's just a good location to have it. But. 01:07:20
You know and hopefully we'll have her moved in March 1st. So the DDA meetings are the same days typically a City Council meetings 01:07:27
open to the public and what time are they typically 13130 so the same day as council meetings public is welcome to attend but our 01:07:34
intent all along has been to have the DDA director downtown. So thank you all for and we had we had people come today. 01:07:41
And they had Jeff was I guess technically one of them. 01:07:48
But we also had three other citizens come and they had great input, insight and it was really exciting. 01:07:53
So I'm hearing a lot of great, a lot of great energy around that focus on downtown, which is just great. 01:07:59
And Councilman Campbell. 01:08:07
Yeah, Next week Christine and I are going to Thomasville. 01:08:10
Along with Wendy Cooper of oh Calf for it's a. 01:08:15
More than murals, I always forget the name of it, but it's basically we'll learn how Thomasville has really turned around their 01:08:18
city and made it a destination. 01:08:24
You've got people going there for a weekend. I've heard of several people, like a group of girls going there for a girls weekend 01:08:30
and whatnot. So it'll be. 01:08:34
Interesting to learn how they kind of have worked on their city and made it a little destination for tourists, so we went down. 01:08:38
I guess Tuesday afternoon, we'll be back Friday evening I guess. 01:08:46
OK. And just that was a grant. We actually got a grant to help offset some of the costs for that. 01:08:50
Right. Well, it's a it's a wonderful city. So I really am glad between you guys and Kate, we're getting a lot of great lessons 01:08:56
from downtown. So be sure you look for the little, I think they have a little quail on the street, so keep your eyes out for that. 01:09:01
So it's kind of fun down there. 01:09:05
OK, that's exciting. Anything else for the benefit of the public? If not, then I we may drop into a quick executive session. 01:09:11
Discuss threatened litigation and real estate matters Should not be long. Anything else for the public? 01:09:19
Right here. None. I'll entertain a motion to go into executive session to discuss. 01:09:27
That we go to executive session to discuss real estate and potential litigation. 01:09:32
Do I have a second? 01:09:37
All in favor, Say aye. 01:09:40
Well, we did because. 01:09:47
Yeah. 01:09:51
Um. 01:09:53
I make a motion to adjourn. 01:09:56
2nd. 01:10:01
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Tony Colonel. 00:00:01
All right. Welcome to the February meeting of the Watkinsville City Council. We do have a quorum here tonight. All council is 00:00:05
present with newly minted Lieutenant Colonel Brett Thomas. Congratulations, Lieutenant Colonel from Kuwait, joining us via phone 00:00:11
here at the city clerk's microphone. So, Brett, welcome. Thank you as always for joining us in the dark of the night in Kuwait. 00:00:17
We're glad you're with us. 00:00:23
And we have a full group here tonight with us. With that, we'll do the pledge. Let's all stand. 00:00:29
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. 00:00:36
And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 00:00:41
All right, I'm going to offer up the usual disclaimer. Everyone who's here, you're on camera. It's right there. We are 00:00:55
broadcasting this simultaneously and online. 00:00:59
Through the Suite 1 webcasting portal, those who aren't with us tonight can always watch online. The meeting packet was posted on 00:01:04
Friday, so any member of the public has an opportunity to review that and provide questions to us in advance the materials. 00:01:11
The time that you have to comment will be provided to you. We'd ask that you provide your comments to the council, not to the 00:01:51
audience. 00:01:54
Or to the camera. So with that, we'll move on to approval of the Minutes Council. You've had those. Unless there's any 00:01:57
corrections, I'll look for a motion to approve. 00:02:01
I'll make a motion to approve. I. Second. We have a motion. We have a second. Welcome back, Miss Tucker. We missed you last month, 00:02:06
so we got our motion in our second back. You know, it was a little bit weird without you here. We had to had some people step up 00:02:12
on that. We have a motion to 2nd. Any comments on the minutes hearing? None. All in favor, Say aye. 00:02:18
I'm abstaining, actually. OK, I wasn't here. All right, so we have that 40 with Mayor Pro Tem Tucker abstaining from the vote. 00:02:25
Approval of the agenda. 00:02:37
Council, you have the agenda. Do we have any changes to the agenda? 00:02:40
Hear none. I'll entertain a motion to approve that. 00:02:44
Make a motion to approve. All right. Second, we have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion of the agenda hearing? None. All 00:02:48
in favor? Say aye. 00:02:52
None opposed. Motion carries 50. We will move on to administration. 00:02:58
Manager Dickerson, I'll let you run through that please. OK. Everybody should have received the balance sheet and the revenue and 00:03:04
expenditure. 00:03:08
Reports we are tracking at 63% of revenues which you know again revenues come at different times. I don't know how much to take a 00:03:12
note of that, but we are our expenses are at 57%, we should be at 58. So that's good news. 00:03:19
On the SPLOST reports your Splash One, just remember reminder that Splashed One and Splice 2 are funding the majority. That money 00:03:27
is being funded is funding the sewer line, a construction. There's some money in there for the police office build out and a 00:03:34
little bit of money left for the work that has to be done around here with the landscaping and whatnot around City Hall. 00:03:42
And then splice. 00:03:52
And we're going to, we'll dive into this a little bit more later because we've got, we're going to talk about reprogram some of 00:03:54
these funds. But right now you've encumbered some monies for some capital items both in public facilities and in. 00:03:59
The multipurpose government facilities, equipment that be for public works and then you've got the money set aside for the park 00:04:06
renovation that we've we've talked about with Harris Hills Park. That money's been encumbered. 00:04:11
Do you want to point out that we did hit six figures in December on? 00:04:18
On our sales tax. 00:04:22
Portion another reminder because we're going to be talking about Tea Sloss tonight, but Spice 3 is still at 8.63%, but our tea 00:04:24
spots will be at 7.77%. 00:04:28
From. 00:04:34
And then lastly, but not least the AARP report, we have a little bit more than 775,000 for you that to spend. 00:04:36
There is a balance of 825 because some of that money has been encumbered to cover some. 00:04:44
Public safety premium that we're paying to entice officers that we have. 00:04:49
Think y'all agreed to 10,000 / 3 year period that they get. We're using that. 00:04:53
I do have a few other, if there are any questions about any of the financials, I'll move to a couple other items I put on here 00:04:58
today. Anything on financials? 00:05:01
I did want to report suite one last meeting. We had 60 views on the portal on the day of the meeting. 12 were actually on the 00:05:06
video. One of those of course is our staff member, so 11. 00:05:12
But I thought, Y'all might like to see how many people are. What's the difference in the views in the in watching the video 00:05:19
sharing, Can you? Well, so the portal means they're going in, they're actually looking at the agenda, the packet materials, the 00:05:23
video means that they're actually linking into the video while it's live, OK? 00:05:27
OK. 00:05:33
I'll try to give that to you all every other month or something, just give you an update. 00:05:34
And because we're going to start the budget process next month, I want to go ahead and actually technically we began it this month 00:05:38
with a annual council retreat, but I want to go ahead and give everybody heads up on the schedule. I gave everyone at the behind 00:05:44
the Dyess a schedule, but you also we can give you more detail, but this is basically what you need to know for your meetings. 00:05:50
Part of those meetings I'll send out like just like I do with this one, the agenda, any items that need to be shared ahead of time 00:05:56
and there are some extra copies on the table there for anybody that's joining us tonight. 00:06:01
Any. 00:06:07
Nothing. 00:06:08
I don't know if this is a place to ask this, but would there be any way? I'm guessing that the called meeting, the required public 00:06:14
hearing meeting, is not very long on May 17th, so we have to have a quorum at that meeting so that the main goal is that we have a 00:06:20
quorum, so we have to have at least three of Y'all plus the mayor. Could it be at 1:00 instead of 12:30 just because we already 00:06:26
have? 00:06:31
DDA meeting at 1:30. I think the intent of dinner at 12:30 was so if the public could join us during the lunch hour, that was the 00:06:38
intent. And again, we just have to have three of y'all plus the mayor to be a forum, correct Jeff? 00:06:43
Thanks. 00:06:49
We're trying to spread it out so people have. 00:06:51
OK. 00:06:56
On economic development, we have are continuing to receive business licenses. The deadline is March 15th. 00:06:58
So we have additional ones coming in. Our alcohol license payments have come up. We have a couple of renewals that have come in. 00:07:05
We are getting thankfully from Airbnb, we're getting our hotel motel now looks like. So that's good. Those transition has 00:07:11
happened. I believe we did get a payment this month too. So I think we're already at 6700. 00:07:17
Which is about what I budgeted for the year, so. 00:07:24
And then on building Permits 3, we did get building plans for water swap did come in, but we're working through those comments 00:07:28
with. 00:07:32
It all sort of washes out. We had that same thing happened this past year. We thought some remember apart from moving you know 00:08:10
it's a it's a hit or miss. We have to guesstimate sometimes what's going to happen and. 00:08:15
We don't have control over some things like the market or pricing, you know prices of supplies. So thank you. 00:08:20
Anything. 00:08:26
All right, I'll pass it off to. 00:08:28
Good evening, Mayor and Council. Always a pleasure to be here before you. 00:08:32
That's a bit of a report last week for the council package. Is there any questions over in the material I provided? 00:08:35
Hearing none and seeing none. 00:08:43
We've had a busy month. 00:08:45
I'm very happy to, happy to say it's good to see see that, say that we're busy, but it's also bad to say we're busy because when 00:08:46
we're busy like we have been, it's because we've been, you know, putting bad guys in jail and and having crime occur in our our 00:08:51
jurisdiction. 00:08:55
So in January, we had an uncovered reverse sting we dubbed Operation House Hunter. 00:09:00
We had a person that was portraying themselves as. 00:09:06
Rental agent that was going to rent a property to a suspected unsuspecting victim for an amount of money and. 00:09:10
She ultimately ended up contacting the actual owners of the property and made them aware and they made in turn made us aware and 00:09:18
we set up the. 00:09:22
And uh. 00:09:27
Put the young lady in jail for actually impersonating an officer. She represented herself as a corrections officer. 00:09:29
I'm sorry, a probation officer and. 00:09:36
Uh. 00:09:41
Committed Theft by deception about for taking the $1200 for the rental agreement. 00:09:41
And she showed up driving on a suspended license, so we locked her up for that. 00:09:47
But All in all, good, good rest. We were able to recognize all the officers that participated in that operation with a letter of 00:09:53
appreciation for their involvement in their planning. 00:09:58
Efforts that they were participating in it. 00:10:04
Really good operation. All right Chief our officers don't go undercover too often but didn't we have somebody undercover in the 00:10:07
operation? We did. We did so the victim had a has an elderly father that was that was kind of ill and so. 00:10:14
One of our officers actually matched the demographic for him and so we put him in, in the role with the victim and sent that 00:10:21
officer in undercover as as a as a, you know, safety. 00:10:27
For our victim and as well as an observer for the transaction. So yeah, Officer Sergeant Wade fulfilled that role and he did a 00:10:33
great job. 00:10:38
February 10th Watkinsville Police Department hosted. 00:10:45
Piedmont Area Traffic Enforcement Network or for a regional meeting and. 00:10:50
We had 40 troopers, Rangers, deputies, police officers and three canines here in town. They went through a training session here 00:10:54
in the council chambers for surviving armed encounters. 00:10:59
And then they set up a Traffic Safety checkpoint on 15 where they ran for several hours. They were able to make 4D UIRS for 00:11:04
narcotics rest one traffic related arrest which is. 00:11:10
Think a driver without a license and 30 citations, 22 warnings for seatbelts, child restraints, violations. Big shout out to all 00:11:17
these all these officers that came from all these surrounding jurisdictions and participated in that effort. And thank you to 00:11:22
Chris Greer. We have engaged him to take some photographs of the agency and documents and things for us over the next, you know, 00:11:27
coming weeks. 00:11:32
And he was very gracious to come out to the roadblock and. 00:11:37
Take some photographs, both aerial and on the ground, and then provide us to provide those to us so that we get a, you know, 00:11:44
portray them on our Facebook page. 00:11:47
Yeah, Chris geared as you. 00:11:51
Does some really great work? 00:11:54
Additionally, we went to Kids Nest here off of Norton and participated in high five day with the children at at the Kids. 00:11:56
And yesterday we participant went to St. Gabriel's assisted living facility and delivered. 00:12:07
Valentine's Day cards and Valentine's Day candy to all the residents there, and we had a wonderful time doing that. It was a very, 00:12:15
very much a treat, as much of a treat for us as it was for the residents who were receiving the gifts and the candy. 00:12:21
And one last thing, one thing and how are you funding that just? 00:12:28
Share about your oh and those proceeds, all that. 00:12:33
All the money that has been spent for those efforts, for the candy and the cards and all that stuff is coming from the badges and 00:12:39
Benevolence Foundation. That's the foundation for long qualified law enforcement foundation for walking to the Police Department. 00:12:45
And I would like to introduce to you a new hire that we were able to make today for court services. 00:12:54
Lauren Hughes. 00:13:04
Lauren is a post certified officer. She formerly served in the Cab County Police Department. She is going to fulfill a contract 00:13:07
labor position that you approved in last budget cycle. 00:13:12
We are finally getting. Getting. 00:13:18
Her identified as the candidate to fill that position and we're going to put her to work very, very. 00:13:21
Quickly and. 00:13:28
Uh. 00:13:30
Keep her very busy for the next few months. 00:13:32
Now you have a 5 minute speed repair. 00:13:37
Lauren Hughes should be working for. 00:13:42
The. 00:13:46
All right. 00:13:47
Thank you. 00:13:48
One, if you got a minute, we'd love for you just to tell us a little bit about your background and what made you interested in 00:13:52
this position. 00:13:54
Experience that I've obtained, So I'm really looking forward to applying those things, fulfilling this position and serving the 00:14:30
citizens of Watkinsville. 00:14:34
Welcome. 00:14:38
Any other questions? 00:14:44
Chief the badges and Benevolence Foundation. Has it been. If we heard back from the state yet on whether we're eligible to be a 00:14:47
part of the state tax credit Attorney says you can submit paperwork to to the. 00:14:53
Department of Revenue for the commissioner to review and approve I have. I asked for an update on the application status with the 00:14:59
Department of Revenue. I haven't got a response yet, but we're waiting on it. They. 00:15:05
Updating the list as you know names become available for the list. 00:15:11
And Tuesday morning, they still had $72 million allocated for. 00:15:20
That program so so for those of you who aren't aware, you will be able. 00:15:26
The state passed the law last year or maybe two years ago. Where qualified agencies you can donate a. 00:15:31
I don't know if there's a limit, chief, but you can you, instead of paying state taxes, you can actually contribute. 00:15:39
A certain amount of your state tax amount to a qualified Police Department foundation. 00:15:45
And the chief has been working to make sure Watkinsville is eligible for that, so that can be as an individual or for your 00:15:52
business. 00:15:55
So instead of writing a check to the state of Georgia, you can write a check to the Walk into the Badges and Benevolence 00:15:58
Foundation and use that as a credit against your state taxes. So, but for our visit folks who are watching online. 00:16:04
And for Y'all to spread the word to business owners and residents that you know, wouldn't it be nice to send part of your state 00:16:11
tax burden back here to the Watkinsville Police Department to help help support his officers with what they're doing and all that 00:16:16
they're doing? 00:16:21
And might might help us in some other ways. So is that accurate, Chief? 00:16:27
If I may, it's $5000 per individual and $10,000 for any corporation or a joint couple. 00:16:31
And they can make the application they have to have pre authorization from the Department of Revenue Commission. 00:16:40
Because they're keeping track of how much money is getting allocated to each foundation, and once you get the approval back, you 00:16:44
make the make the contribution, then you can take it, take that off on. 00:16:49
The taxes for your next year, it is, like I said, $5000 or whatever your tax bracket is. Whatever. 00:16:55
But that the common use place. These are commonly uses for private schools but there is a limited amount of pool. The state has a 00:17:39
cap on it so so we want you know we want. 00:17:44
We'd ideally we would go ahead and get those in pretty early. So Chief is once we're certified or you know let's be sure we just 00:17:51
get that information out pretty aggressively. 00:17:55
OK. And then let's also share and let's make a note to let the Chamber of Commerce know at the right time that we're eligible for 00:18:00
that. And you know, we just want. 00:18:04
Be sure we do our part to get those dollars back here to walk and so and I have one additional thing that I need to add from 00:18:07
breaking news. 00:18:11
The LPRS, just moments before we came to the council and engaged in the meeting, the LPR hit on a war. 00:18:16
Officers staged up on the vehicle because they went out of jittery toes because they had to get their. 00:18:25
Once the driver came back out, they made contact with the driver and it was a valid hit and they have arrested him for multiple 00:18:30
warrants from surrounding counties. 00:18:33
Very good. So Chief, remind everybody how fast those, when that camera sees something that the notification gets to your officers 00:18:38
if they've got, if they've got their camera up, if they got their computer up in the car. 00:18:44
And they're sitting in a location where they could see the cars passing them when that camera hits that cars in front. 00:18:50
Like, quite literally. 00:18:56
There you go. Thank you. Thank you. 00:19:00
All right, consent agenda. We don't have 1:00 tonight. We do have a public hearing. I'm going to let Attorney Reitman explain the 00:19:06
procedures related to that, but that is for our friends who are here from the luxury inn tonight as it relates to an annexation. 00:19:13
So Mr. Reitman, if you could walk us through public hearing procedures. 00:19:21
And then we will let Mrs. Dickerson and yourself walk us through the report on the request. 00:19:25
And then at that point, Mr. Miss Abatin, Mr. Mr. or Mrs. Vodka, whoever wants to speak would then come forward. OK. So Joey, you 00:19:31
take the lead. Yes, Sir. I'm glad to pursue to the city code. There are specific rules. 4 minutes per person needs to be relevant 00:19:38
to the topic. The agenda item at hand, Please do come forward and speak from the podium when you're called upon. And obviously we 00:19:45
do not have debate, argument, personal tax or irrelevant discussion. And at this time I opened the zoning public hearing for item 00:19:51
5. 00:19:58
6331 Macon Highway, which is the luxury Inn Motel, Mr. Mrs. Bhakta, it is a corridor commercial zoning and annexation request. 00:20:05
We'll start with the zoning public hearing. We've referenced corridor commercial because that's most similar to the current 00:20:13
county. I believe it's probably AC 3 zoning designation. So if it's going to come in, we're coming in as similar as possible. So 00:20:21
we're in a zoning public, public hearing before we actually open up the floor to the citizens, to the applicant. 00:20:30
Did either you, Sharon or Mark have any additional input or did you want me to give some background? 00:20:38
Yeah, and basically, Long story short is when the city limits were established many years ago just happened to bisect the subject 00:20:44
parcel. Maybe less than half of it is in, it looks like. 00:20:51
A little more, it's about 60% is in, but about 40% is outside of the current city limits and I consider this be somewhat of a 00:20:57
housekeeping cleanup, but it is important for tax revenue purposes to ensure that all of its appropriately reported as a city 00:21:05
business for ad valorem and sales tax etcetera purposes. This will clarify that and avoid confusion and again it's primarily 00:21:14
housekeeping will come in with the zoning as close as we have as to what the county has. 00:21:22
Will first have a zoning hearing about what I just said, coming in from county commercial to city corridor commercial. After we 00:21:30
have the zoning hearing, then we'll move on the annexation. We'll talk about that in a moment. 00:21:35
Did I leave anything out, Sharon Mark that you'd like to? 00:21:41
All right, now it is time for the applicant. Do you have anything you wish to say regarding this request? And if you do, feel free 00:21:45
to use a podium. You don't have to talk if you don't feel the need to. 00:21:50
All right, Mayor and council, again, this is straightforward. It's mostly housekeeping. Do as anybody behind the dice have any 00:21:56
questions about the process or the request. 00:22:00
OK, is there anyone else here from the public? Mr. Chairman, anybody else who wishes to be heard? This will go from being a county 00:22:06
partial parcel to an entirely city parcel. 00:22:12
No objection I presume from the county and we gave our due notice as we do each time there's an annexation, 1 less one that you 00:22:18
all need to worry about in the county, will it be in the city? 00:22:23
Hearing is seeing no comments for against I close the zoning public hearing. We go immediately into the annexation public hearing 00:22:29
and again, it will become a city property, a municipal property if the city in its discretion, chooses to bring it in as such. 00:22:37
I don't know there's really any new information to add. Do you all have any questions or comments about this? 00:22:45
All right, very good. Mr. Chairman. Anything. 00:22:52
I don't see anybody else in the room. Miss Julie, did you get any comments online? 00:22:56
No emails, nothing. All right, very good. This time I close the annexation public hearing pursuant to Georgia law. The next step 00:23:01
is an annexation vote. And Please note that if it is annexed in at the city's discretion, certain notifications will happen. We'll 00:23:08
advise Department of Community Affairs, the mapping folks they will get. 00:23:15
I guess it's not APDF. What's the actual proper verbiage? 00:23:23
Shape file. 00:23:27
We will have our map updated to show that and they will update it for purposes of the the census and so forth. At this point, 00:23:30
Mayor and Council is ripe for a vote. The first vote, if you deem appropriate, would be to vote to approve the Annexation 00:23:40
Ordinance regarding 6331 Macon Highway, the part of tax parcel W 12003 that currently lies outside of Watkinsville. 00:23:50
And so I may once say, so move. I'm sorry, you were going to say, Sir, do we have a motion? Do we have a motion to annex the 00:24:01
parcel just described? 00:24:06
Do we have a second? 00:24:12
Any discussion? 00:24:14
All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? 00:24:16
Motion carries 5 O and then on the zoning do we have a motion to make the amendment of the just described parcel added to the 00:24:20
zoning as. 00:24:25
Commercial. 00:24:31
So moved. Do we have a second? Here's your chance for discussion. 00:24:32
Hearing none. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? 00:24:38
Motion carries 5 O You are now part of Watkinsville. 00:24:42
You were before, but I'll love you now we got. 00:24:46
OK, y'all do not have to hang around if you don't want to, but you're welcome to stay if if you want. We do not have any 00:24:49
appearances tonight. We do not have any old business under new business we have. 00:24:55
A resolution when we were at the GMA luncheon earlier. They are promoting. 00:25:02
An effort to practice greater civility at city meetings. Thankfully, this is already. 00:25:10
Largely covered in our code of ethics that we approved previously, but we thought we would want to be an example for other cities 00:25:16
in the state and go ahead and embrace the resolution that GMA has provided for us. So I would encourage us to do that. There's a 00:25:23
little bit of background on the screen about this. 00:25:29
We typically behave this way already, and I'm really proud of the way that we interact here in Watkinsville, but I I think it 00:25:37
would be good for us to adopt this resolution as a show of support for the broader initiative in the state and be a community that 00:25:42
embraces these principles. 00:25:47
So this was in your packet and there's some background on the screen. 00:25:52
Happy to have some discussion about the. 00:25:57
Civility. 00:26:01
Civility resolution. Joe, do you have anything you want to add to that? 00:26:03
Other than the fact that we did simplify this down a little bit, it was very good form from GMA but a little verbose, and as 00:26:06
everything else that we put in front of you, we try to distill it down to the basic elements for brevity and ease of application 00:26:12
and compliance. 00:26:17
From. 00:26:23
Jeff, I know you were there too when they talked about this. Did you have any any other thoughts? 00:26:28
No. 00:26:32
All. 00:26:35
All right. Well, if you guys are comfortable, I'll entertain. 00:26:37
I make a motion that we accept the resolution. 00:26:40
Umm to practice and promote civility? 00:26:44
That say that Right Civility pledge. Do we have a second? 00:26:48
All right. Any discussion? 00:26:53
The most civil way possible. All in favor? Say aye. 00:26:57
All right. Sharon, could motion carries 5 O Sharon, would you be sure to convey to GMA that we have adopted this? I'm sure they're 00:27:00
wanting to. 00:27:04
How many cities are a part of that? 00:27:09
So if you could let the right people know, that would be great. 00:27:12
Item 7 and this ties back. 00:27:16
To our planning retreat that we held last week to some degree is our 2023 Comprehensive Plan Short Term. 00:27:19
Work plan for 2023 to 2027, so manager Dickerson, I'm going to let you offer a report on that. 00:27:27
Sure. Thank you, Mayor. 00:27:33
So these are the activities that we have identified for the next five years that you all will be focusing on, obviously not all at 00:27:35
the same time, but and we had you prioritize some of those, There are some additional objectives in your strategic plan that don't 00:27:41
fall into this plan, but these are the Top 14. 00:27:47
These, if approved tonight, will be sent to the county to be included in the Comprehensive update, Comprehensive Plan update. 00:27:53
Can you go back one more? I just wanna misspell something. No, I'm just. 00:28:00
You know me, but I mean. 00:28:05
And basically you're held to this, but you're not. I mean it basically you're the goal is for cities and counties to continue to 00:28:10
plan, thoughtfully plan. 00:28:14
Make measured decisions about how to grow your community. And so that's the the point of this and that's part why it's part of the 00:28:22
comprehensive plan. So every five years as an update. 00:28:26
So this is your short term work program. 00:28:30
And the responsible parties all need to. 00:28:33
Members of elected officials, right. So if something is actually, again, the work, it will be largely done by you or by the 00:28:36
Downtown Development Authority. We don't need to have that on here. 00:28:40
Council, I think this is a result. This is a result of the work we did Thursday and some of our prioritization exercise. Do y'all 00:29:26
have any? 00:29:28
Anything you want to share or feedback on? 00:29:32
So this is not, this is not in order of importance. No, no. OK. 00:29:39
Now you you all do that in your strategic, but this is just a list of activities that you're committing to try to work on. And you 00:29:46
know, you know how this works. You could be going down the road, you know one specific item, something could happen. You you've 00:29:50
got to stop it. You you know, that's fine. It's just they want you to go through the effort of trying to plan and be thoughtful 00:29:55
about the growth of your community. 00:30:00
And then you report like we just submit, we'll be submitting the work plan that was completed and the status of those items. I 00:30:08
didn't bring, I didn't bring this up, you all received that will be submitting that along with this as part of the is what did you 00:30:13
accomplish, what do you want to accomplish kind of thing. 00:30:18
All right. Do we have a motion to adopt the short term work plan? 00:30:26
I make a motion to adopt the short term work plan. 00:30:31
Do we have a second? 00:30:36
Any further discussion? 00:30:38
All right, All in favor. Say aye. 00:30:41
Any opposed? 00:30:44
Motion carries 5. 00:30:46
We will move on to fiscal year 23 budget amendments. Manager Dickerson. I think you've got a report for us on that. 00:30:48
So we don't normally do this, but but we do have some activities, some opportunities that are approached in front of us that we 00:30:57
want to ask you to. 00:31:01
To pursue and we're going to ask that you take the. 00:31:06
The extra revenues that we've received in the lost during the first six months of the year, you can see that I projected 426,000, 00:31:12
we've actually received 508,000 which is a little more than 80, two $82,000 and we would like to ask you to go ahead and direct 00:31:19
those funds to some projects and opportunities one and I'd lay these out in your packet. 00:31:26
But they're up on the screen as well. So with the DDA, now that we have a DVA director, there's some activities that we would like 00:31:33
her to. 00:31:37
Pursue and one in particular, it's very important was discussed today during the DVA board meeting was actually having a strategic 00:31:41
plan, a short term plan. 00:31:45
Eventually will there'll be a master plan. We saw that in the short term work program, but that's not something we're going to do 00:31:50
right now. We need to get our feet underneath us and. 00:31:54
And figure out sort of the next few steps to grow. And so there's a there's a company that we would like to engage. 00:31:57
Opportunity for, you know, to meet each other and then it depending on what you decide to do with historic preservation, there'll 00:32:34
be some educational information that will need to go out and that would fall at this point, the majority that probably fall under 00:32:39
DDA. And then the Main Street program, there is some training we would like to pursue that There's a lot of opportunities that 00:32:43
come and resources that come available through Main Street 101. 00:32:48
So to drill down and all that, we're looking at about 10,000 for. 00:32:53
And then on the general government side, we have some legal and professional expenses, some to deal with some code enforcement 00:32:57
cases that were unexpected and were caught somewhat costly. And then we are currently, we have an RFP out right now for some 00:33:02
financial software. We're currently handling all of our finances. 00:33:08
For those purposes and I did, I did just to show you your sheet in your packet to show you the. So we're we're not asking for any 00:33:52
money out of fund balance. The money would just be redirected you know from the revenues that we've already received. 00:33:58
And then into tourism and general government. 00:34:05
And Sheridan, I talked about this, y'all a lot of times we have some small, small numbers, small things we do at the end of the 00:34:09
year. But I just thought given the increase in revenues and the size of some of these would be healthier for us to go ahead and do 00:34:13
a mid year, mid year budget adjustment rather than pushing these sort of things to the end of the year and and all of them and it 00:34:18
looking like. 00:34:22
A bigger cleanup than what it really was because they're planning on how and how to use these funds as it stands, so. 00:34:28
So I have a question, this is just minor. So as we are now getting some Airbnb taxes. 00:34:34
We'll document that and and yeah. 00:35:19
Sorry, another question. 00:35:27
Is there with that 15,000 approximate? 00:35:30
Guesstimate of the software, the the light, is there some expense that will go away that we have right now with QuickBooks? Yeah, 00:35:34
so I think QuickBooks is around 6000. 00:35:39
A year, but this the the software we're looking at will also add HR capabilities, payroll which we don't have right now. We're 00:35:45
doing all by hand. I mean it should streamline a lot of the stuff. So it's yeah it's going to be there. There's some additional 00:35:50
costs we're taking on that we don't currently have, but it should make us more. Again we're trying to professionalize the the 00:35:55
departments and and you know make it so that it's not so labor intensive and we can spend time doing other things and not you 00:36:00
know. 00:36:05
Doing payroll, no, that makes a lot of sense. Well, I just was wanting to make sure. So it's not really a $15,000 a year increase, 00:36:10
it's more like a seven or seven and that's where I mean that's just an estimate because we haven't received, we don't receive the, 00:36:15
we don't open those proposals, price proposals until March, I think 6 at the Monday, I think it's March 6th or third Monday. Thank 00:36:20
you. 00:36:25
OK. 00:36:33
Any other questions on the budget amendments? 00:36:35
Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to. 00:36:39
Approve the proposed budget amendments. 00:36:42
I make a motion to approve the proposed budget amendments. Do we have a second? 00:36:46
We have a motion. We have a second. Any questions? Discuss. 00:36:52
All right. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? 00:36:55
Sounds like it passed 5 O. 00:37:01
Hang in there with us, Lieutenant Colonel. 00:37:04
You you're still with us. All right, good. 00:37:08
Let me tell you what, when we get to the journey we're going to let, we're going to let the Lieutenant Colonel make a motion to 00:37:11
adjourn tonight. How about that? 00:37:14
OK, we'll leave. We'll let you have that, Christine, but we'll we'll, we'll do that. 00:37:19
OK. 00:37:23
All right. Thank you, Colonel Thomas. All right. The report for Parks, Green Space and Environmental Committee, Playground 00:37:26
Subcommittee. Excuse me, Mayor Pro Tem, give us an update on what you got. OK. Excellent. So I. 00:37:33
There was an engineering report done on. Maybe not. Was it an engineering report? Anyway, contractors came out and looked at the 00:37:41
old playground and we were hoping that we could save. 00:37:47
A bit of it, and repurpose it to be more of kind of like a canopy walk type of thing. 00:37:54
Unfortunately, it is not particularly salvageable and even if we spent, the amount of money was over $50,000 to salvage just the 00:38:01
parts of it we were going to keep and to keep them up to code and to make them safe. It was just going to be a Band-Aid and it 00:38:09
wouldn't last that long anyway. So meeting with the subcommittee, that did not seem to be a good use of city funds and so. 00:38:18
All of it is going to be demolished. However, what we are going to be doing instead is this is a project that's going to take a 00:38:27
number of years, but we are starting. We have an RFP going out asking for some art that ideally will be repurposing. 00:38:36
Some of the parts of the old playground in the art and it will be lining the ADA accessible sidewalk from the bottom of Paris 00:38:46
Shoals all the way up to the new playground. And again, this is going to take some time with different artists over time, but all 00:38:51
of the art also. 00:38:57
Is art that children could touch or interact with in some way. It's not going to be something that parents are going to keep their 00:39:02
children off of. 00:39:06
And it will all also have a focus on the natural flora and fauna that would be found in Harrah's park, with the hope of also 00:39:10
having informational signage that would be an educational component to help people learn more about the different flora and fauna 00:39:19
aspects that we have here in Harris Shoals Park. So we are partnering with Ocalaf on this and. 00:39:27
The RFP should be going out hopefully, if not by the end of this week then next week. We're still making a few little tweaks. 00:39:36
Proposals end by the end of April so that we we have. 00:39:42
17-5 set aside for this budget cycle for this project, which we will pick at least two artists. And then I'm hoping we'll have 00:39:50
just an influx of wonderful ideas and artists wanting to participate and so we can do some more budget asks for this coming fiscal 00:39:57
year. So that is the hope. Any questions? 00:40:03
Or thoughts on this from anybody? 00:40:11
How do artists get a copy of the RFP? So that is a great question once we have it. And Wendy Cooper, the director of Oak Half, has 00:40:13
been the one who's been, you know, crafting it. She has much more experience and. 00:40:19
RFP's for artists than I do. We should be able to put a copy somewhere. 00:40:26
Online, it'll be online, will also be hopefully, maybe have even a link on our social media channels for people to be able to 00:40:33
share it. OCAF will also be sending it out. Lawrence Duke is one of the committee members. He has a lot of connections in the 00:40:39
artist community. So he also will be putting it out. But anybody, I mean, once it's up and going, it just needs to be shared. And 00:40:45
I'm sorry, I don't actually have a. 00:40:51
100% completed copy this evening we said we're making a few little last weeks, so. 00:40:58
Thank you for your work on that. That's the. 00:41:06
A lot of good memories on that playground, but I think we'll create a lot of great new memories on this new walking quarter and 00:41:09
with the picnic facilities and other things. 00:41:13
So what we're going to do with that space? So the playground of possibilities is amazing. It's getting so much use. We have yet to 00:41:17
experience it really in the. 00:41:22
Well, we started to experience it in the heat of the summer, but we're about to be coming upon that again, and so we thought it 00:41:27
would be nice to have a more shaded picnic area. So where that is being removed now, we'll have some picnic tables and such there 00:41:32
for people to have. 00:41:38
Little respite from the sun. 00:41:44
All right. Thank you, Councilwoman Tucker, for all your work on that. 00:41:47
In order to bump up the others to the maximum. So let me remind you guys that the the referendum. 00:42:26
So the antenna is simply just to shift to reprogram those funds so you get more out of splash. You can't use T spots monies on rec 00:43:10
and parks or unless there's a road going through there I guess. But or public public safety technically Chief will tell you can 00:43:15
use on police cars, but I don't that's not what we're going to do with it and you can't use on government facilities you know 00:43:20
either. So the intent is to try to maximize what we can out of these three buckets that we have under SPLOST and then under T 00:43:26
SPLOST. 00:43:31
To move those whatever projects at 380,000 basically move those those expenses to TS Blossom collected there. 00:43:37
I'll walk you through sort of a breakdown. So this right now and I don't have the, I didn't put the this y'all seen the sheet, 00:43:44
it's pretty pretty. 00:43:48
It's pretty involved. So I didn't put the whole sheet up there, but you will see the appropriate amount for that extra that jaws 00:43:53
of life was 30 about 35,000 and then the money we've appropriated for police vehicles and public safety is about 92 three and 00:43:58
that's that's money that doesn't have to come out of our capital but will come out of this instead. So we don't have to bring take 00:44:03
it out of the general fund capital. 00:44:08
So in this case, we're recommending that we move the police equipment up by 90,000, which would make it 340, which then makes us 00:44:13
at the 5:40. 00:44:17
And. 00:44:22
This is a little bit more involved. This one involves Councilwoman Tucker's and and Councilwoman Massey's committee on the Park. 00:44:24
We preserve the 100,000 out there. We've there is some monies left because we've, you know, freed up some money in there, but 00:44:31
there will be some money left to do some, perhaps some of the additional art walk items that you want to do. We're removing the 00:44:38
informational signs because we have that money in government facilities and signage. We don't need it here, so we'll reduce that. 00:44:45
We're bumping the Reimagination Rocket Field up 300,000 to 300,000 so that we can set aside the money needed for those 00:44:53
improvements. 00:44:57
So that's the drill down sort of detail. 00:45:04
These are the details on Rocket. 00:45:07
As they stand right now, of course those numbers could change and stuff, but right now that's where we're at. 00:45:12
Some of those are estimates, some of our actual numbers that we believe will happen. 00:45:17
And then on roads and streets, as I said we'll we will reduce that and I should update ignore that where it says the Max I updated 00:45:23
in your packet but not on my slide where it says to decrease to the Max, just ignore that. Sorry about that. 00:45:29
Your packet is correct, but basically decrease that amount by 380,000. So we're going from 2/7 to 2/3 on that one. 00:45:37
And as you see we've, you know you have general buckets or items projects within Rd. streets and bridges. 00:45:44
A lot of those matches and things, but it I don't think there's going to be a serious, you know, because you're going to be able 00:45:52
to shift those if needed to tease Lost. 00:45:55
Sharon, since our entrance signs came in significantly less than that. 00:46:28
You know, are we going to do anticipate us moving forward on some more of our downtown branding stuff? Yeah, so as part of that, 00:46:33
absolutely. Yeah, All of our signage, our park signage, our Watkins, you know, all the park signage. 00:46:39
Include Rocket Field, whatever we end up doing there, the downtown wayfinding signs, we talked about that today. I haven't priced 00:46:46
any of that yet. 00:46:48
Umm, any other signs in the community? Yeah, well, it'll come out of this amount. Like even when we have I think the green space 00:46:52
at Trove, I think it'd be really nice to designate that that's part of the Watkinsville Green space program. You know some of 00:46:56
those spaces that so people know they're. 00:47:01
You know that we have 17 acres or something of public, public spaces out there. So yeah, the signage and and again that's, you 00:47:06
know, we have, I don't know that you know what. 00:47:10
What we'll do with the public works facility these were, I dig in those items in white were. 00:47:16
Ideas, place placeholders essentially. So those monies are somewhat fluid. As we come up with ideas or projects that we move 00:47:21
forward, we'll bring them back to you to get some definition on that. And then that's just a. 00:47:27
Again, ignore the roads and streets. Horses decreased to Max. I got your packet right just to get on slide right. 00:47:36
Any questions? 00:47:42
Hearing none do we have a motion to approve the. 00:47:49
The designation of Swiss 3. 00:47:52
I make a motion to approve the designation of spots three funds. 00:47:56
All. 00:48:01
And I second. 00:48:03
All right, we have a motion and we have a second. Any discussion? 00:48:05
Hearing none all in favor of approving the designation of SPLOST 3 funds, say aye aye. 00:48:09
Any opposed? 00:48:16
Motion carries 5 O. All right. Moving on to T spots. I'm assuming that's the other side of this Sharon, so. 00:48:18
Walk us through that. 00:48:25
We don't have a whole bunch of defined projects in this right now. Mainly because we haven't started collecting and I think 00:48:27
there's a little bit of time y'all are trying to sort of figure out. We did. I have I have sent to the city engineer a request for 00:48:32
some exhibits to we talked about it the retreat trying to. 00:48:36
The professional engineering, the the 20% match of that watch will come out of Sloss Three. I've already already earmarked that 00:49:14
for that purpose. 00:49:17
So that item is on here because that is a future project. And then you know like I said, sidewalks and trails are, it's just sort 00:49:22
of a placeholder. We are required by T Spot, by the law and T Spot to keep 30% set aside for the statewide strategic 00:49:29
transportation plan which essentially is just resurfacing, you know roads and stuff, so. 00:49:35
So we do have that down there and. 00:49:42
Set aside, I think we all talked about this at the retreat to last week was set to solve a bit of money for the Highway 53 00:49:45
expansion and if that is needed and that will have to be determined as that hopefully that progresses. 00:49:51
So OK. 00:50:00
All right. Any questions on this? 00:50:02
And the 5.5 is the Max no matter how much the revenues grow overtime, is that correct? 00:50:34
I believe so. Is that right? Can you all go above 71,000,000? If we were to collect more than 71,000,000, you can't. 00:50:41
Platform. 00:50:48
So then it'll be based on a percentage. 00:50:50
OK, great. Good to know. So then it works into a percentage I believe of what the right, right if you set the if the referendum is 00:50:55
say 2.4 million is. 00:50:59
You know, half 50% of the 5.5. 00:51:04
You should have to use it for the approval list, right? Yeah. 00:51:07
All right. 00:51:14
OK, council, can I have a motion to approve the T spot allocations? I make a motion to approve the designations. All right, Do we 00:51:15
have a second? 00:51:21
Have a motion, We have a second. Any further discussion? 00:51:30
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. 00:51:33
Any opposed? 00:51:36
Motion carries unanimously. 00:51:37
All right. Report and recommendation regarding historic preservation. Just a quick set up on this. 00:51:41
As you all will recall, we've had through the years some passionate conversations up here about historic preservation. 00:51:48
Watkinsville has. 00:51:58
Thankfully, we still have a lot of our history, our historic homes, Histor. 00:52:00
Buildings, but Oconee County does not have a surfeit of those, nor does Watkinsville, frankly, compared to some surrounding 00:52:05
communities. So. 00:52:08
The last time we had one of these painful conversations about a house getting a demolition permit. 00:52:13
Councilman Garrett and Councilman Campbell agreed to. 00:52:18
Work on this with staff and take a look at it. And so they are. They have done some homework and I want to let them talk about the 00:52:23
results of that work and where they think we need to go. 00:52:27
Yeah, The property on Barnett Shoals was kind of. 00:52:39
Kind of got the ball rolling on this idea as far as historic preservation. So you know, Chuck, Chuck and I have been kind of. 00:52:43
Educating ourselves and into what goes into it. We're still learning, and so tonight we kind of wanted to. 00:52:50
Let the public know that the historic preservation ordinance is something the council is looking into. 00:52:56
And would welcome public feedback. 00:53:02
From the other citizens of Watkinsville, some of the. 00:53:06
Kind of a high point, I guess. We're looking to identify the historic district. 00:53:12
We've spoke kind of briefly of the kind of defining an area and I'm actually meeting with Doctor Nesbitt in two weeks. 00:53:18
He worked with the city of Watkinsville. He's a professor at UGA and historic. 00:53:26
College of history, I guess. Or something. And anyway, he worked with Winterville in regards to defining their historic districts 00:53:33
and what you should include, what you should not include. So that'll help us, kind of. 00:53:39
Tighten up and come up with the correct area if we so choose to go forward with a historic preservation ordinance. 00:53:45
We looked at kind of a timeline or an age of properties and came up with 70 years old after looking at some other. 00:53:53
Cities that have enacted A historic Preservation ordinance seem to be. 00:54:02
A reasonable amount of time. 00:54:06
Umm. 00:54:09
Let's see. We would have to establish a historic preservation Commission. All the residents would have to live in. The city. 00:54:11
Council member can't be a member of the Commission, and that Commission would meet to create. 00:54:17
Squeaks this table. 00:54:26
And. 00:54:33
So that the Commission would put would help to define the district, come up with the ordinance and everything. So basically 00:54:35
tonight kind of just wanted to announce this is something that we're looking into and welcome feedback from our. 00:54:42
Residents of the city. 00:54:49
And that's anything else. 00:54:53
You know, four out of five of us live in a historic, older, historic home. So it's not like we're trying to do something that's. 00:54:57
I don't know it affects us. 00:55:07
We're taking it very serious and when I came here and all the years coming through town, we haven't marked the historic district 00:55:10
and I thought it was something that was already in place and then we realized it wasn. 00:55:16
So. 00:55:23
We welcome feedback. 00:55:26
To help to try to get this thing going. 00:55:29
Back for me. So we will. I'm going to let Joe and Christine weigh in in a second, but just a couple things. So we think it is 00:55:33
really important that our downtown. 00:55:37
Property owners or property owners who may or may not be in the district have an opportunity to comment on this. So we will have a 00:55:42
pretty robust public input process where we'll outline what some of the options are, the pros and cons, the areas that are likely 00:55:47
to be affected and give our give the public plenty of time to weigh in on this. There's a lot of different levels that we can take 00:55:53
in terms of the how the code is structured. There's also some benefits that can come back to property owners by being in a 00:55:58
historic. 00:56:04
Historic district and a part of that in terms of some, I think there's some tax freezes and other things like that that are 00:56:10
available depending on. 00:56:14
How you approach this? So there's some pros and cons. There's some level of complexity to this. So we're trying to balance the 00:56:19
needs of property owners and what their desires may be to do with their property. 00:56:24
With the broader community interest of historic preservation and keeping some of these assets that we can never get back. So I'm 00:56:31
going to let Christine go and then Joe go. 00:56:35
Yeah, I was just going to piggyback on what Chuck was saying. 00:56:40
The majority of us, the vast majority of us, live in these historic homes ourselves. And so I think there's going to be a very 00:56:44
practical approach to this. It's not going to be high level esoteric. Oh, this is great in theory, all of. 00:56:52
Would most likely experience the practical implications and so. 00:57:00
Very much want feedback from people who have insight into that so. 00:57:06
I think, I think it's something that Watkinsville needs. It's just figuring out how to do it in a way that it's not too onerous 00:57:13
on. 00:57:17
Property owners. 00:57:23
Thank you, Jeff. Thank you. To put a finer point on what you mentioned a moment ago, the transparency of this process is 00:57:24
important. Note zoning, of course, you have signs and you have newspaper ads. This goes a step further. There will be personal 00:57:32
notification to any member on the owner in the proposed historic district in advance. 00:57:39
And then post district notification. So there is substantial due process associated with this. Another aspect of this to your 00:57:47
point about it not being owners but really to be something for the benefit everyone to avoid demolition by neglect. You all 00:57:54
alluded to a moment ago about what triggered this was over that that recent 1A year ago on Barnett Shoals Rd. to avoid demolition 00:58:00
by neglect situations and encourage property owners to keep them up with as you mentioned Mr. Mayor the the programs that are 00:58:06
available. 00:58:12
Tax abatements, tax relief and things of that nature. 00:58:19
It's another tool, the toolbox for the city for planning purposes. I'll also note that these store preservation ordinances, and we 00:58:21
did a substantial update, a draft for Madison in 2016 with the help of James Reap, who is also UGA professor. Or maybe he's 00:58:28
retired now and maybe the Doctor Nesbitt is his successor. I do not know. But there are standards and guidelines that are very 00:58:34
clear available to the public. Just yesterday, kind of as a gift for my wife, I gave her the Historic Preservation manual that 00:58:41
Madison adopted back in the late 90s. 00:58:47
That's hundreds of pages of detailed information. Good go by information since you've got clear standards and you can you have 00:58:54
some, you know, templates to work from where the citizens will be fully invested and fully informed of the parameters of an 00:59:00
ordinance. So there's a lot of good work product out there, so you don't have to reinvent the wheel and the citizens can be 00:59:06
reassured that what you were doing is building upon what's been done in a lot of other communities. Very successful into the 00:59:12
benefit of the citizenry at large. Thank you. 00:59:19
Thank you, Joe. I don't think we need. 00:59:27
An action on that Do we OK? 00:59:30
I think we need to know if you intend to pursue that so that we can schedule meetings and we'll need to know about that. Does 00:59:33
anybody have any problems with moving forward with this? 00:59:38
OK. All right. You have, but we are fine moving forward with that. 00:59:44
OK, public comments. 00:59:50
Did we receive any online? Mr. Chairman Daniel have anything he wishes to share? 00:59:54
All right, public comments are now closed. Mayor's Report. I do have several things I want to cover. 00:59:59
Tonight. 01:00:06
We had the opportunity as part of our planning retreat to talk about all the accomplishments in 2022. It was quite a year for 01:00:08
Watkinsville. Very proud of what our. 01:00:12
What all of you and our staff have managed to do in 2022. Here's a couple. 01:00:18
Snapshots, There's the tactical things that you have to do. Make sure that we've got the ability for people to drive home on the 01:00:22
roads and lay a lane. 01:00:26
Hardin Hill Improve, but also big decisions like a development authority. 01:00:30
A miracle league, Miracle league facility opening. 01:00:36
Rocket Field getting off the ground, Wire Park grand opening So what a wonderful year 2022 was for Watkinsville. So so anyway, 01:00:40
just really, really proud of the the team. 01:00:46
And and the work that y'all do share and to keep everything moving. So thank you for that to you and your staff for all that work. 01:00:53
Rocket Field is, if you've driven by it is rolling. So this is a summary of what's what's happening. The most noticeable thing is 01:01:01
the new construction there in the new building. 01:01:06
The There will be some changes to the exterior on that building. It looks like it's boarding batten right now. It'll be boarding 01:01:13
batten on top. It will be brick on the bottom. 01:01:17
The but it is they are moving right along. Electric is in the buildings in the in the dry it's in and Brock tools doing a great 01:01:24
job of managing that process for us. 01:01:29
Coordinating that with the with the team from Hill Point as they move forward and move dirt. It'll imagine it'll slow down quite a 01:01:36
bit for the next few days as this rain comes through, but they're really moving quickly on that project and it's great to see it. 01:01:43
Sewer Line A is. I won't attempt to translate all that, but Sewer Line A is underway. I've checked on it twice and and talked to a 01:01:51
business owner out there. It has not been without its challenges, but I'm thankful that they're all hanging in there. 01:01:58
And it looks like they're moving, moving pretty quickly to get off of Jerry Smith Dr. which I think is going to be the part that's 01:02:07
most. 01:02:09
Most intense for our, for our. 01:02:13
Residents. Are they completely closing? Jerry Smith, Sharon, Is that what you're saying? 01:02:16
Cutting part are they not so it's try to be mayor so, so an effort to try to keep from opening, closing open and closing the the 01:02:20
contractor who's responsible for for traffic control. Work. A plan that you see on the screen there with the adjacent property 01:02:27
owners to route traffic through their parking lot for a temporary time period so that they could you know do the work hopefully in 01:02:34
the most efficient manner as they work to come under Hwy. 15. 01:02:41
OK, so anyway, they're they're they're they're moving quickly and the business owners did have some concerns about. 01:02:49
How the how the you know concrete being marked and other things and the contractor jumped right on that and I think has addressed 01:02:57
that in a very positive way. 01:03:00
Thank them for that. And John, thanks to you and your team for continuing to manage that important project. We did have a 01:03:05
three-way stop on Morrison St. We've had some public conversations about that, but that was at the request of one of the property 01:03:09
owners there. 01:03:13
And and then the chief reviewed that there used to be kind of a convex mirror there, a different kind of set up. But we thought 01:03:18
the safest thing to do there based on input from public works and Chief Brock and his team was to add a three-way stop there given 01:03:23
the improvements that are going to occur. 01:03:28
Where that will kind of feel more like a three-way stop than a curve in the road. Had a lot of people crossing over there and some 01:03:34
unsafe driving there, so kudos to our team for striping and doing that. 01:03:39
Looked like we had a celebration for Dave, Mayor Dave's love of slides with our employee LED donation. The employees raised the 01:03:44
funds for that slide and so that was celebrated today with Dave's husband Mario, who was on site. And Speaking of the playground, 01:03:51
I think you've all seen it by now, but I do have to It was after last month's meeting we were recognized as a visionary city. 01:03:58
For our partnership with ESP on that project, we were recognized in Georgia Trend. So there's a nice feature on Watkinsville and 01:04:06
Georgia Trend magazine. And then we were featured in LS is newest catalog. They're the company that did the playground equipment. 01:04:14
So that was nice to see. So Watkinsville is in there is a great example for the playground. So continue to see. 01:04:21
Lots of little legs jogging up there every day when we're at City Hall, so that's that's awesome to see how much use. 01:04:31
That that's getting we had. Sharon, is there any other slides I've got two other things I want to mention. Thanks to all of you 01:04:37
for a great planning retreat, Sharon. Thanks for your work on putting that together last Thursday. We got a lot done. 01:04:43
And that felt, I felt really great. 01:04:49
We did lose a long time citizen of Watkinsville on February 9th, and I just learned about it today. Miss Vivian Jackson passed 01:04:52
away. Miss Vivian was 88 years old and it lived on Hardin Hill for years and years and years. In fact, if you stopped to talk to 01:04:58
Miss Jackson, she'd tell you that Jackson St. was named after her family. 01:05:03
She she taught Sunday School at Bethel. 01:05:11
And claims to be the only teacher who could keep Marvin Nunley under control. 01:05:15
The last time I was at Bethel and John, I know you've been a few times too. She was still standing up on Sundays and and she 01:05:20
would, she would bring the word, she was great, so. 01:05:25
Susan and I love to talk to Miss Vivian when we were walking Susan more often than. 01:05:31
So keep her family in your prayers. She was just a wonderful lady and. 01:05:36
Lovely, lovely person with some great stories in history in Watkinsville. So her funeral. 01:05:41
Is this Friday at 11 at Bethel but? 01:05:46
I just wanted to recognize Miss Vivian Jackson. 01:05:49
Contributions to the community and her her love of the children at Bethel and others through the year. She's a she's a special 01:05:52
lady, so. 01:05:56
Keeping her family in our prayers. So that is all that I have on the mayors update. We will go to council reports at this point. 01:06:01
Councilman Garrett. 01:06:05
Councilwoman Massey have nothing all. 01:06:13
Council Colonel Thomas, anything from Kuwait? 01:06:16
Everything's quiet on the on the over the pond. 01:06:21
Couple pounds that you've crossed. All right, Councilwoman Tucker. 01:06:27
Yes, just a quick update on DDA. We've alluded to it several times, but we're continuing to move forward. Kate's doing a fantastic 01:06:32
job as the director. 01:06:36
And I'm really excited to see what this is going to do for our city. Can we share where the DDA? 01:06:42
Office is going to be, or do we want to hold on to that for a while? Yeah, we're working out the lease agreement. I'm waiting to 01:06:49
get it finished so I can send it to Joe to review. But it will be on the 2nd floor of a building Judge Shiver owns on the corner 01:06:54
of Main and School St. 01:06:59
It probably won't be one of those places. I mean, she may have people come in, but because she may or may not be there, like have 01:07:05
active office hours, but she'll have a place where she can. 01:07:09
You know, be in the space and and meet people and if needed bring people back and have meetings there. The DDA means will continue 01:07:14
to be held here at City Hall just because there's a lot of space and it's just a good location to have it. But. 01:07:20
You know and hopefully we'll have her moved in March 1st. So the DDA meetings are the same days typically a City Council meetings 01:07:27
open to the public and what time are they typically 13130 so the same day as council meetings public is welcome to attend but our 01:07:34
intent all along has been to have the DDA director downtown. So thank you all for and we had we had people come today. 01:07:41
And they had Jeff was I guess technically one of them. 01:07:48
But we also had three other citizens come and they had great input, insight and it was really exciting. 01:07:53
So I'm hearing a lot of great, a lot of great energy around that focus on downtown, which is just great. 01:07:59
And Councilman Campbell. 01:08:07
Yeah, Next week Christine and I are going to Thomasville. 01:08:10
Along with Wendy Cooper of oh Calf for it's a. 01:08:15
More than murals, I always forget the name of it, but it's basically we'll learn how Thomasville has really turned around their 01:08:18
city and made it a destination. 01:08:24
You've got people going there for a weekend. I've heard of several people, like a group of girls going there for a girls weekend 01:08:30
and whatnot. So it'll be. 01:08:34
Interesting to learn how they kind of have worked on their city and made it a little destination for tourists, so we went down. 01:08:38
I guess Tuesday afternoon, we'll be back Friday evening I guess. 01:08:46
OK. And just that was a grant. We actually got a grant to help offset some of the costs for that. 01:08:50
Right. Well, it's a it's a wonderful city. So I really am glad between you guys and Kate, we're getting a lot of great lessons 01:08:56
from downtown. So be sure you look for the little, I think they have a little quail on the street, so keep your eyes out for that. 01:09:01
So it's kind of fun down there. 01:09:05
OK, that's exciting. Anything else for the benefit of the public? If not, then I we may drop into a quick executive session. 01:09:11
Discuss threatened litigation and real estate matters Should not be long. Anything else for the public? 01:09:19
Right here. None. I'll entertain a motion to go into executive session to discuss. 01:09:27
That we go to executive session to discuss real estate and potential litigation. 01:09:32
Do I have a second? 01:09:37
All in favor, Say aye. 01:09:40
Well, we did because. 01:09:47
Yeah. 01:09:51
Um. 01:09:53
I make a motion to adjourn. 01:09:56
2nd. 01:10:01
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